Those who track Vatican politics did not seem overly surprised with the choice of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as the 265th pope.
There’s a hidden hypocrisy in this election which very few have commented on in the mainstream press.
John Paul II changed the election rules to provide that a new pope could be elected with a simple majority rather than a 2/3 vote, thus throwing away 800 years of tradition.
This rule would “kick in” if no candidate received 2/3 after 30 votes.
Benedict XVI was elected with surprising haste, though, on the fourth ballot. One suspects that he received an early majority, and the cardinal electors, seeing the writing on the wall, fast-tracked him to the papacy.
So, I guess that some ancient traditions in the Roman Catholic Church can be done away with, and others that are roughly the same age, like a celibate priesthood, are sacrosanct.
Ratzinger, an intellectual who speaks multiple languages, reportedly German, Italian, French, Latin, Spanish and English, is 78 years of age, and his pontificate is expected to be short.
Dismissive of the impact of the sexual abuse scandals in the American Catholic church, he is expected to be a defender of orthodoxy in all other respects as well.
Time will tell if this brings about a schism between the first and third world Catholic communities, or if the Church hierarchy simply remains a millstone around the necks of its progressive members, impeding progress toward the 21st? 20th? 19th century? but not stopping it altogether.