Pontiff ‘unfairly caricatured’

Rachel Zoll, Vatican City

"He wants to be collegial. He wants the advice of cardinals," Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick said in a news conference at the Pontifical North American College one day after the papal election. "That for me is one of the great things."

The former German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected in a swift conclave that ended on Tuesday, just a day after it began.

Chicago Cardinal Francis George, citing the conclave's oath of secrecy, declined to give specifics of the vote, but said: "It was a choice that was clear almost from the beginning."

New York Cardinal

Edward Egan called him "calm" and "strong", while Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony said: "We have to get to know this man" beyond his public image as a cold disciplinarian.

"I think he'll play well as soon as people come to know him," said Cardinal Egan, who worked for years at the Vatican as an appellate judge and oversaw revisions of the Church's code of canon law. "This is a very unprepossessing, humble, and if I may say, lovely gentleman."

Some American Catholics may be slow to warm to the new Pope, who spent 24 years as head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The majority told pollsters in recent weeks that they favour ordaining women and making celibacy optional for priests.

Anguished liberals noted his role in enforcing orthodoxy at Catholic universities, his hardline against gay relationships and his warning that voters would be "co-operating in evil" if they backed a politician specifically because he supported abortion rights.

However, many Catholics predicted Americans would come to admire the new Pope for his intellect, spirituality and consistent support for the traditions of their faith.

Baltimore Cardinal William Keeler, who leads outreach to the Jewish community for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he was sensitive to the concerns of Jews. Israeli leaders and American Jewish leaders praised him for his strong condemnations of anti-Semitism despite his ties to the Nazi Party as a youth compulsory for young Germans at the time.

Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali said that in the excitement inside the conclave after the ballots were tallied, the new Pope took the time to wish him a happy birthday.

"With all the things he had to think about, he had the very human touch," said Cardinal Rigali, who worked for more than two decades as a Vatican diplomat, among other duties.

And Cardinal Egan recalled how the Pope took the time to personally wish him well before he became a US archbishop. "He is a very lovely and loving person," Cardinal Egan said. "I think you're going to like him very much."

Eleven American cardinals voted in the papal election. Cardinal Egan and Cardinal Rigali called the election moving after the tense days leading up to the conclave and said the Pope organised a party in the hotel where the cardinals were staying inside the Vatican.

Unlike the election of Pope John Paul II, when he led the cardinals in singing Polish folk songs after his election, the cardinals sang in Latin this time, Cardinal George said. "There were no folk songs or anything like that. It's a different style," he said.

Asked his thoughts heading into the conclave, Cardinal Egan said he was impressed by his moving homily at John Paul's funeral. Cardinal Egan went as far as to say its sensitivity reminded him of Pope John XXIII, a beloved Pontiff known as Good Pope John.

But Cardinal Rigali said the decision to choose Joseph Ratzinger was not made in the days ahead of the conclave or because of the German cardinal's leadership in mourning John Paul.