Ratzinger is new Pope

VATICAN CITY -- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, a longtime guardian of doctrinal orthodoxy, was elected the new Pope Tuesday evening in the first conclave of the new millennium. He chose the name Pope Benedict XVI.

Ratzinger emerged onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, where he waved to a wildly cheering crowd of tens of thousands and gave his first blessing as Pope. Other cardinals clad in their crimson robes came out on other balconies to watch him.

"Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me--a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord," he said.

"I entrust myself to your prayers," the Pope said.

Ratzinger, the first German Pope in centuries, 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. He turned 78 on Saturday.

He 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 April 2 at age 84.

Bells had chimed at St. Peter's Basilica early Tuesday evening (12:15 a.m. RP time) several minutes after smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel's chimney signaling the election of a Pope.

As the bells rang after a confusing smoke signal, tens of thousands of flag-waving pilgrims filled the square, chanting: "Viva il Papa!" or "Long live the Pope!"

Vatican Radio initially suggested the smoke was black but then declared was too difficult to call. White smoke is used to announce a Pope's election to the world.

"It's only been 24 hours--surprising how fast he was elected," Vatican Radio said, commenting on how the new Pope was elected after just four or five ballots.

More pilgrims were pouring into St. Peter's Square, and the bells were still pealing 10 minutes after the original tolling.

The 265th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church succeeds John Paul II, who gained extraordinary popularity over a 26-year pontificate, history's third-longest papacy. Millions mourned him around the world in a tribute to his charisma.

Cardinals had faced a choice over whether to seek an older, skilled administrator who could serve as a "transitional" Pope while the church absorbs John Paul's legacy, or a younger dynamic pastor and communicator--perhaps from Latin America or elsewhere in the developing world where the church is growing.

While John Paul II, a Pole, was elected to challenge the communist system in place in eastern Europe in 1978 the new pontiff 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.

Under John Paul II, the church's central authority grew, often to dismay of bishops and rank-and-file Catholics around the world.

Even though John Paul II appointed all but two of the men who elected the new Pope, it was no guarantee that the new man would necessarily be in his mold.

Pope John XXIII was 77 when he was elected Pope in 1958 and viewed as a transitional figure, but he called the Second Vatican Council that revolutionized the church from within and opened up its dialogue with non-Catholics.

The new Pope will have to decide whether to keep up the kind of foreign travel that was a hallmark of John Paul II's papacy, with his 104 pilgrimages abroad.

The new man may be locked into one foreign trip - the mid-August Catholic youth day gathering in Cologne, Germany. John Paul II had agreed to visit and organizers have already spent millions of dollars (euros) in preparations. (AP)