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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Conclave elects German cardinal as new pope

Bloomington theologians examine papal name selection

While Father Dan Atkins drilled along during St. Paul Catholic Center's business meeting Tuesday afternoon, a fellow cleric's cell phone interrupted discussions.\nHe suddenly had a premonition.\n"I looked over and said, 'Habemus Papam.'"\nHe was right. They had a new pope.\nAnd while the world celebrated the election of the Catholic Church's 265th pope, Bloomington theologians wondered about Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who chose the name Pope Benedict XVI. They wondered what's on his mind. They wondered what's in his future. And they wondered what's in a name.\n"What interests me is the name he took," said IU religious studies professor Mary Jo Weaver. "Generally when a pope takes a name, he's telling you something."\nThe last Holy See named Benedict was Benedict XV, a progressive pontiff by all accounts who reigned from 1914 to 1922. Benedict XV made Joan of Arc a saint, a bold peace offering to the French government, which at the time was opposed to the Roman Catholic Church.\nHe also tried to negotiate an end to World War I with the Papal Peace proposal of 1917, but was unsuccessful.\n"Benedict XV was pope right after a really contentious and difficult time," Weaver said, adding that the pope called for a halt between traditionalist and conservative Catholics. She said a similar dynamic permeates the ranking clerics today.\nIt is odd, Weaver said, that "Benedict" was chosen by a man as conservative as Ratzinger.\n"If they could have possibly picked someone more conservative than John Paul II, they have," said IU sociology professor of religion Melissa Wilde. "I think they're trying to stake their claim that the Church is a conservative Church."\nAs Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith since 1981, Ratzinger has been the Vatican's head disciplinarian in charge of reprimanding dissenters.\n"Those are very, very, very different positions," Atkins said. "One is to guard the purity of the faith, and the other puts you in the position of helping the whole world to hold hands with each other."\nWilde said Ratzinger's role as "God's Rottweiler" made him the voice of \nconservatism in the Church.\n"This is not the warm and fuzzy face of the Vatican," Wilde said. "He's well-known as being a tough guy."\nWeaver said she is concerned about Ratzinger's stance on homosexuals -- which Wilde describes as "love the sinner, not the sin, at best" -- and women's roles in the Church.\n"I think it's appalling, unjust and ridiculous," she said. "A lot of people will go into raptures of joy, but a lot of people will go into despair."\nBenedict XVI is Rome's first German pope in 482 years. (16th century Pope Adrian VI was born in Utrecht, Netherlands, which was considered a part of Germany at that time.) Still, his selection marks the domination of European first-world countrymen in the holiest seat.\nOf those slighted for the papacy were Honduras' Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, Francis Arinze of Nigeria and Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino of Cuba. Wilde said she was not surprised the Cardinals selected a conservative pope but was disappointed they didn't pick one of the third-world candidates. The Church is, after all, more than 2 billion people strong and present in nearly every poor country on Earth.\n"The Church is the third world," she said.\nBecause Benedict XVI is the oldest elected pontiff in 275 years, he is seen by many as a "transitional pope."\nBut when John XXIII became pope in 1958, the 77-year-old was considered by many to be a temporary holder of a permanent position.\nThen he convened the Second Vatican Council, which was the first gathering of all the world's bishops in nearly a century.\nWeaver said the story of John XXIII shows it can be tough to predict what Benedict XVI might do. \n"You can't say he's just there keeping the seat hot," she said. "Sometimes these guys do surprising things."\nAtkins, the St. Paul's pastor whose business meeting was interrupted by a phone call and a Latin phrase, said he plans to "give him a chance."\n"There are a lot of things I don't know," Atkins said. "There's one thing I believe, and that is that the pope that we have is the pope that God has given to us by the guidance of the Holy Spirit."\nAfter Father Atkins' clerical group learned the good news, some of them gathered around a television to watch the Vatican share her newest ambassador with the rest of the world.\n"Then it was back to business," he said.\n-- Contact Senior Writer Rick Newkirk at renewkir@indiana.edu.

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