Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, the Roman Catholic Church's leading hard-liner, was elected pope in Vatican City on Tuesday, in the first conclave of the new millennium.
Although many took to the streets of Rome in celebration after white smoke poured from the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel and the bells of St. Peter's pealed at 12:04 p.m. Eastern Standard Time to announce the new pope, local Catholics had mixed reactions.
Some praised the cardinals' decision and others worried that the conservative views of Ratzinger, who chose the name Benedict XVI, could have adverse effects.
Known as the Vatican enforcer of church teaching, cardinals saw the first German pope in nearly 1,000 years as the most suitable prelate to pursue Pope John Paul II's conservative policies - including rejection of contraception, abortion, female priests and gay unions.
Michigan Catholic Conference spokesman Dave Maluchnik said the state will continue to pray for the new pope as he adjusts to his new role as the Catholic Church leader.
"We rejoice today and offer our prayers for the election of our new father," Maluchnik said. "We celebrate the power and presence of the Holy Spirit that worked throughout this papal election."
Ratzinger, 78, was chosen as the 265th pope in one of the fastest elections in the past century.
The cardinals took an oath of secrecy, forbidding them to divulge how they voted. Under conclave rules, a winner needed two-thirds support, or 77 votes from the 115 cardinal electors.
The Rev. Mark Inglot of St. John Student Parish, 327 M.A.C. Ave., said he was surprised how quickly a new pope was appointed.
"I was also surprised about how they decided," Inglot said, adding he praises the cardinals' decision to select a pope from a different country. "There has been a long history of Italian popes and to go from a Polish pope to a German pope says something about the mindsets of the cardinals."
On Monday, Ratzinger, who was the dean of the College of Cardinals, used his homily at the Mass dedicated to electing the next pope to warn the faithful about tendencies that he considered dangers to the faith: sects, ideologies like Marxism, liberalism, atheism, agnosticism and relativism - the ideology that there are no absolute truths.
"Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism," he said, in Italian. "Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and 'swept along by every wind of teaching,' looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards."
Ratzinger served John Paul II since 1981 as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In that position, he has disciplined church dissidents and upheld church policy against attempts by liberals for reforms.
Diocese of Lansing spokesman Michael Diebold said people can expect the new pope to adhere to traditional church teachings, and the nature of service in the Vatican will remain consistent with that of the late Pope John Paul II.
"Obviously, he'll have a different personality, (but) what we're probably going to see is a continuation of the ministry and service of John Paul II," Diebold said. "Pope Benedict has been a Vatican staff member and very close collaborator with John Paul and we'll see a continuation of the good work that John Paul did."
Some have questioned whether the new pope betrayed suspected pro-Nazi sentiment during his teenage years in Germany during World War II.
In his memoirs, Ratzinger wrote of being enrolled in Hitler's Nazi youth movement against his will when he was 14, when membership was compulsory. He says he was soon let out because of his studies for the priesthood.
As a cardinal, Ratzinger also spoke out against homosexual acts and raising children in same-sex families, said Jeff Montoya, a national board member of Dignity USA, a national organization for gay Catholics.
"We are very concerned that Cardinal Ratzinger has been elected as the new pope," Montoya said. "He has a tarnished record of opposing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics.
"We are prayerful and hopeful that, as pope, Cardinal Ratzinger will be open to listening to the experience of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics, and not continue to teach that we are disordered and that our loving acts are evil."
Although John Paul, a Pole, was elected to challenge the communist system in place in eastern Europe in 1978, Benedict faces new issues: the need for dialogue with Islam, the divisions between the wealthy North and the poor South as well as problems within his own church.
These include the priest sex-abuse scandals that have cost the church millions in settlements in the United States and elsewhere, coping with a chronic shortage of priests and nuns in the West and halting the stream of people leaving a church indifferent to teachings they no longer find relevant.
Benedict XVI was to preside over a Mass on Wednesday morning in the Sistine Chapel and will be formally installed on Sunday at 4 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Staff writer Amy Davis contributed to this report.
"I wanted the South American to win because he would bring a different perspective. He's younger and there's such a strong Catholic population in South America. It's time they were represented."
Marsha French | English creative writing junior
"We had one from Portugal. I think he is too old. (Catholics and the Vatican) don't like to make changes. I think they should for once choose someone outside of Europe - and I'm from Europe."
Ana Antunes | visiting professor from Portugal
"Out of all the possibilities, he's the most conservative and personally, I'm very liberal. He won't make those changes like priests getting married and women's involvement in the clergy because he's more of a traditional Catholic."
Cara Binder | journalism freshman
"I'm not against him winning, but he was the go-between guy for cardinals and bishops with the sex-abuse scandal. He knows what's going on, and coming from an American viewpoint, that's not a bad thing."
Nathan Ballantine | economics junior
