I'm a simple, humble worker, says new Pope
He chose the name Pope Benedict XVI and called himself "a simple, humble worker".
Ratzinger was the oldest cardinal to be named Pope since Clement XII, who was also 78 when he became Pope in 1730. He is the first German Pope since Victor II
Cardinal Ratzinger alienated some Catholics in Germany with his zeal enforcing Church orthodoxy. But in the conservative Alpine foothills of Bavaria where he grew up, he remains a favourite son who many think will make a good Pope.
Ratzinger, a rigorously conservative guardian of doctrinal orthodoxy who turned 78 on Saturday and was chosen the Catholic Church's 265th Pontiff yesterday, went into the Vatican conclave a leading candidate to succeed Pope John Paul II.
"Only someone who knows tradition is able to shape the future," said the Rev Thomas Frauenlob, who heads the seminary in Traunstein where Ratzinger studied and regularly returns to visit.
But opinion about him remains deeply divided in Germany, a sharp contrast to John Paul, who was revered in his native Poland. A recent poll for Der Spiegel news weekly said Germans opposed to Ratzinger becoming Pope outnumbered supporters 36% to 29%, with 17% having no preference. The poll of 1,000 people, taken from April 5-7, gave no margin of error.
Many blame Ratzinger for decrees from Rome barring Catholic priests from counselling pregnant teens on their options and blocking German Catholics from sharing Communion with their Lutheran brethren at a joint gathering in 2003. Ratzinger has clashed with prominent theologians at home, most notably the liberal Hans Kueng, who helped him get a teaching post at the University of Tuebingen in the 1960s. The cardinal later publicly criticised Kueng, whose licence to teach theology was revoked by the Vatican in 1979.
He has also sparred openly in articles with fellow German Cardinal Walter Kasper, a moderate who has urged less centralised Church governance and was considered a dark horse papal candidate.
"He has hurt many people and far overstepped his boundaries in Germany," said Christian Wiesner, spokesman for the pro-reform Wir Sind Kirche, or We Are Church movement.
Ratzinger himself, in his autobiography, sensed he was out of step with his fellow Germans as early as the 1960s, when he was a young assistant at the Second Vatican Council in Rome. Returning to Germany between sessions, "I found the mood in the Church and among theologians to be agitated," he wrote. "More and more there was the impression that nothing stood fast in the Church, that everything was up for revision."
Ratzinger left Tuebingen during student protests in the late 1960s and moved to the more conservative University of Regensburg in Bavaria.
Catholics and Protestants each account for about 34% of the German population, but Bavaria is one of the more heavily Catholic areas.
"What Wadowice was for John Paul, Bavaria is for Ratzinger," said Frauenlob, referring to John Paul II's hometown in southern Poland. "He has very deep roots here, it's his home."
The cardinal was born in Marktl Am Inn, but his father, a policeman, moved frequently and the family left when he was two.
He and his older brother, Georg - former director of the renowned Regensburger Domspatzen boys' choir - return annually to the peaceful halls of St Michael's Seminary to stay in the elegant, but sparsely furnished bishop's apartment next to the church.
An accomplished pianist who loves Mozart, Ratzinger enjoys playing the grand piano in the seminary's main hall, and walking through downtown Traunstein greeting people.
Traunstein was also where Ratzinger went through the harrowing years of Nazi rule and World War II.
In his memoirs, Ratzinger wrote that he was enrolled in the Nazi youth movement against his will when he was 14 in 1941, when membership was compulsory. He said he was soon let out because of his studies for the priesthood.
Two years later he was drafted into a Nazi anti-aircraft unit as a helper, a common task for teenage boys too young to be soldiers. A year later he was released, only to be sent to the Austrian-Hungarian border to construct tank barriers.
He deserted the Germany army in May 1945 and returned to Traunstein - a risky move, since deserters were shot on the spot if caught, or publicly hanged as examples to others.
When he arrived home, US soldiers took him prisoner and held him in a POW camp for several weeks. Upon his release, he re-entered the seminary. Ratzinger was ordained, along with his brother, in 1951. He then spent several years teaching theology.
In 1977, he was appointed bishop of Munich and elevated to cardinal three months later by Pope Paul VI. Pope John Paul II named him leader of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1981, where he was responsible for enforcing Catholic orthodoxy and was one of the key men in the drive to shore up the faith of the worlds Catholics. The new Pope speaks several languages, among them Italian and English, as well as his native language German.
Frauenlob calls him a subtle thinker with a deep understanding of Catholic tradition and a personal touch he's not often given credit for. He cites the example of the seminary's 2003 Confirmation service where no bishop was available. Ratzinger swiftly agreed to come, confirming the 14 boys, then taking time to speak personally to each one after the ceremony.
"I find it hurtful to see him described as a hardliner," Frauenlob said. "People are too quick to say that, it's not an accurate reflection of his personality."
The new Pope had gone into the conclave with the most buzz among two dozen leading candidates. He had impressed many faithful with his stirring homily at the funeral of John Paul II, who died on April 2 at the age of 84. As the 265th successor to St Peter, he is expected to give the Church a clear, if sometimes radical, voice.
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"We can be sure our beloved pope is standing today at the window of the Father's house, that he sees us and blesses us."
"Today we bury his remains in the earth as a seed of immortality. Our hearts are full of sadness, yet at the same time of joyful hope and profound gratitude."
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"The Muslim world is not totally mistaken when it reproaches the West of Christian tradition of moral decadence and the manipulation of human life ... Islam has also had moments of great splendour and decadence."
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"That the Jews are connected with God in a special way and that God does not allow that bond to fail is entirely obvious. We wait for the instant in which Israel will say yes to Christ, but we know that it has a special mission in history now ... Our Christian conviction is that Christ is also the messiah of Israel."
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"Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labelled today as a fundamentalism... We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognise anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires"
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"The fact that the church is convinced of not having the right to confer priestly ordination on women is now considered by some as irreconcilable with the European Constitution."
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"Priests also are sinners. But I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the US, is a planned campaign.
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"The renunciation of marriage and family is thus to be understood in terms of this vision: ... I forego bringing forth further life on the tree of life, and I live in the faith that my land is really God - and so I make it easier for others, also, to believe that there is a kingdom of heaven."
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"Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered to an intrinsic moral evil, and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder ... We must have great respect for these people who also suffer and who want to find their own way of correct living. On the other hand, to create a legal form of a kind of homosexual marriage, in reality, does not help these people."
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