German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the strict defender of Catholic orthodoxy for the past 23 years, was elected Pope on Tuesday despite a widespread assumption he was too old and divisive to win election.
He took the name Benedict XVI, a cardinal announced to crowds in St. Peter’s Square after white smoke from the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel chimney and the pealing of bells from St. Peter’s Basilica announced that a new pope had been chosen….
Ratzinger’s stern leadership of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the modern successor to the Inquisition, delighted conservative Catholics but upset moderates and other Christians whose churches he described as deficient.
And his three most powerful weapons are…