Pontiff keeps faith with Vatican old guard

POPE Benedict XVI confirmed Cardinal Angelo Sodano in the Vatican's No 2 post yesterday and kept all other top officials, avoiding any immediate shake-up in the late John Paul II's administration.

It was a sign that the new pope, a doctrinal hard-liner, wants to show continuity with the popular John Paul.

Later yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI made another stop at his apartment across the street from the Vatican walls.

He arrived in a car and waved at several hundred people waiting outside before he entered the building. Pope Benedict XVI has not yet moved into the papal apartments overlooking St Peter's Square, staying instead at the Vatican hotel where cardinals resided during the conclave that elected him.

Cardinal Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state, is 77, already two years past the normal retirement age for Vatican officials. The new pope is 78.

One appointment Pope Benedict XVI will have to make is his successor as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's guardian of orthodoxy.

Among names that have surfaced as possible successors are Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Austria and Cardinal Francis George of Chicago.

The Vatican also said the Pope confirmed the Holy See's foreign minister, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo of Italy, as well as the undersecretary of state, Archbishop Leonardo Sandri of Argentina, who had become John Paul's official voice when the late pontiff could no longer speak.

The confirmation of Cardinal Sodano came a day after Pope Benedict XVI gave his first Mass as Pope, pledging to keep reaching out to other religions and leaving no doubt that he senses the large shadow of his predecessor.

"I seem to feel his strong hand holding mine, I feel I can see his smiling eyes and hear his words, at this moment particularly directed at me: 'Be not afraid'," said Pope Benedict XVI.

While signalling he wants to tread in John Paul's ideological footsteps, the Pope is a contrast in style to his predecessor, who was 20 years younger when he became pontiff and kept up a gruelling global travel schedule even as his health ebbed.

Pope Benedict XVI is mostly an indoor man, though he is a big walker because of his youth in the Bavarian Alps. He finds relaxation in classical music and likes to play the piano, not take to the stage.

But the Vatican also showed that Pope Benedict XVI intends to follow in the footsteps of John Paul's multimedia ministry. It modified its website so that users who click on an icon on the home page automatically activate an e-mail composer with Pope Benedict's address. In English, the address is [e-mail].

Pope Benedict XVI took a cue from John Paul when he pledged on Wednesday to work for unity among Christians and to seek "an open and sincere dialogue" with other faiths.

By and large, reactions among these faiths were hopeful and expectant - an indication of the new standards in reaching out that John Paul set during his 26-year papacy.

"I think he has been very open, so I have no worries about the ecumenical route," said British Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. "It will continue. No doubt at all."

In Israel, admiration for John Paul's tireless efforts to promote Jewish-Catholic reconciliation mixed with unease about Pope Benedict's time in the Hitler Youth as a teenager.

Pope Benedict XVI has written openly about his service, which was compulsory under the Nazi regime. He was also drafted into a German anti-aircraft unit during World War II.

"Israel can certainly coexist with him," Oded Ben-Hor, Israel's ambassador to the Vatican, said of the new Pope. "But the real test will come over the course of time."

Pope Benedict XVI's election was welcomed across the Islamic world, where many hope he will promote harmony between the two religions and possibly Middle East peace.

Given John Paul's tireless travelling to promote both Catholicism and interfaith dialogue, Pope Benedict XVI's impact will depend on his health, vigour and the ability of a relatively shy man to captivate crowds.

He himself predicted a "short reign" in comments to cardinals just after his election. While there are no indications that Pope Benedict XVI suffers from any serious or chronic medical problems, he has had ailments, including a 1991 stroke, that raise questions about how long his pontificate will last.

The Vatican refused to comment on Pope Benedict XVI's health, citing his privacy. The Vatican never officially confirmed John Paul suffered from Parkinson's disease until after he died.