Pope Benedict XVI celebrates mass
Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his first public Mass as the 265th leader of the Roman Catholic Church today after one of the shortest conclaves in a century, which sent an unmistakable signal that the church – buffeted by 21st-century problems – is intent on sticking to tradition.
Benedict, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, clutched his pastoral staff and made the sign of the cross as he processed into the intimate Sistine Chapel, led by the cardinals who had elected him Pope in the frescoed room a day earlier.
Wearing golden vestments and a white bishop’s mitre, Ratzinger opened the Mass with a prayer in Latin and was to deliver his first homily in Latin – a discourse that will be watched by millions for hints about priorities in his pontificate. Cardinals, also in gold, solemnly chanted the Kyrie hymn.
St Peter’s Square was nearly empty early today, in stark contrast to the hundreds of thousands who thronged the square to see the new Pope as he was presented to the world.
The Vatican’s hard-line enforcer of church orthodoxy under John Paul II for almost 25 years, Benedict had gone into the two-day conclave in the Sistine Chapel as one of the favourites. He emerged yesterday as the oldest Pontiff in 275 years and the first Germanic pope in almost a millennium.
A wildly cheering crowd of more than 100,000 welcomed Benedict when he stepped onto the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica as dusk fell yesterday and gave his first blessing as Pope, after Chilean Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez spoke the Latin words the world had been waiting for, “habemus papam” – “We have a pope” – and announced the Papal name Ratzinger had taken.
Pilgrims on St. Peter’s Square shouted “Benedetto!” and “Viva il Papa,” waved national flags, hugged their neighbours and jumped in joy. Many shed tears of bliss; some wept in disappointment.
In his first words as Pope, Benedict paid tribute in accented Italian to “the great John Paul II.” He called himself “a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord”.
It was a sign of John Paul’s charismatic legacy looming over the new Pontiff, who is described by people who know him as intellectual, cultured and rather reserved.
Benedict turned 78 on Saturday, the oldest Pope elected since Clement XII in 1730. His age clearly was a factor among cardinals who favoured a “transitional” pope who could skilfully lead the church as it absorbs John Paul II’s legacy, rather than a younger cardinal who could wind up with another long Pontificate.
His election in four ballots over two days – the first of yesterday’s afternoon session – concluded one of the shortest conclaves in 100 years.
A conservative on issues such as homosexuality, the ordination of women, and lifting the celibacy requirement for priests, Benedict has led the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – a position he used to discipline church dissidents and uphold church policy against attempts at reform by liberals and activist priests.
Joy over the selection of a new Pope immediately mixed with worries Benedict could polarise a global church, whose challenges include growing secularism in rich countries and inroads by evangelical groups in regions such as Latin America.
“He could be a wedge rather than a unifier for the church,” said the Rev. Thmas Reese, editor of the Jesuit weekly magazine America.
