German Cardinal Ratzinger Elected as New Pope

The Vatican announced the name of John Paul II’s successor Tuesday evening, shortly after white smoke billowed out of a Vatican chimney, indicating the election of the first new pope of the third millennium.

By Kenneth Chan, Tuesday, April 19, 2005

The Vatican announced the name of John Paul II’s successor Tuesday evening, shortly after white smoke billowed out of a Vatican chimney, indicating the election of the first new pope of the third millennium.

The election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany by a two-third majority came in a fourth round of voting that begun when the 115 cardinals sequestered themselves into the Sistine Chapel late Monday for their conclave.

“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,” the Associated Press reported.

Ratzinger, the first German pope in centuries, served John Paul II since 1981 as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

After being introduced by Chilean Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estivez, the new pope said, "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.

"The fact that the Lord can work and act even with insufficient means consoles me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers," he stated, according to AP. "I entrust myself to your prayers."

As the 265th pontiff in the Church's 2,000-year history, Benedict XVI now has difficult task of filling the void left by John Paul II – the third longest-reigning pontiff in the Church's history, who died Apr. 2 at the age of 84 – and guiding the Catholic Church’s 1.1 billion followers into a new era fraught with moral dilemmas and dissension over a host of issues ranging from emptying pews to contraception and celibacy.