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action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/khazen/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121The message was clearly designed to show that Benedict was intent on following many of the groundbreaking paths charted by John Paul, who had made reaching out to other religions and trying to heal the 1,000-year-old schism in Christianity a hallmark of his pontificate. Benedict referred to his predecessor several times in his message, including a reference to the late pope’s final will, where John Paul said he hoped new generations would draw on the work of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meeting that modernized the church. “I too … want to affirm with decisive willingness to follow in the commitment of carrying out the Second Vatican Council, in the wake of my predecessors and in faithful continuity with the 2,000-year-old tradition of the church,” he said. John Paul supported council reforms but cracked down on what both men considered excesses spawned by the changes, including calls for priests to be allowed to marry and admission of women into the priesthood. The Vatican’s hard-line enforcer of church orthodoxy under John Paul II for almost 25 years, Benedict had gone into the two-day conclave as a favorite. He was elected Tuesday as the oldest pontiff in 275 years and the first Germanic pope in almost a millennium. A cheering crowd of more than 100,000 welcomed Benedict when he stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica as dusk fell Tuesday and gave his first blessing as pope. By contrast, St. Peter’s Square was nearly empty early Wednesday, although by the end of the Mass a few hundred had gathered to watch on giant TV screens. “We greet our Pope Benedict XVI,” read a poster toted by teens from a high school in Handrup, Germany, who were in the square when his black Mercedes convertible, its top up and Vatican flags flying, zipped into and out of his former offices at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Benedict said he had been surprised by his election, and German Cardinal Joachim Meisner told reporters late Tuesday that he had looked “a little forlorn” when he went to change into his papal vestments in the Room of Tears \u2014 so nicknamed because many new pontiffs get choked up there, realizing the enormity of their mission. Meisner added: “By the time dinner came around, Ratzinger was looking much better and very much like the pope.” Benedict asked cardinals to dine together on bean soup, cold cuts, a salad and fruit, Meisner said. The nuns who prepare their meals at the Vatican hotel where the cardinals were sequestered during the conclave didn’t have time to plan a special menu, so there were only two special treats \u2014 ice cream and champagne. In his first words as pope delivered from the loggia overlooking the square, Benedict paid tribute in accented Italian to “the great John Paul II.” He called himself “a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord.” It was a sign of John Paul’s charismatic legacy looming over the new pontiff, who is described by people who know him as intellectual, cultured and rather reserved. Benedict said Wednesday he felt John Paul’s presence as he wrestled with two conflicting emotions following the election: thanks to God for the gift of being pope but also “a sense of inadequacy” in carrying out the responsibility. “I seem to feel his strong hand holding mine, I feel I can see his smiling eyes and hear his words, at this moment particularly directed at me: ‘Be not afraid.'” Benedict, who turned 78 on Saturday, is the oldest pope elected since Clement XII in 1730. His age clearly was a factor among cardinals who favored a “transitional” pope who could skillfully lead the church as it absorbs John Paul II’s legacy, rather than a younger cardinal who could wind up with another long pontificate. His election in four ballots over two days concluded one of the shortest conclaves in 100 years. A conservative on issues such as homosexuality, the ordination of women and lifting the celibacy requirement for priests, Benedict has led the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith \u2014 a position he used to discipline church dissidents and uphold church policy against attempts at reform by liberals and activist priests. His background was clearly on the minds of cardinals a day after the election. “God has taken the most unusual people and placed them in places of authority, power if you will, and used them for his purposes,” said American Cardinal Adam Maida. “So I believe that Cardinal Ratzinger, with all his gifts and talents and even some of his shortcomings, will somehow be able to reach others.” British Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor suggested Ratzinger might temper some of his positions, at least publicly, because of the office he now holds. “The pope now has a platform and a place he didn’t have before. Now he has much wider responsibilities, and I think he’s aware of that,” Murphy-O’Connor said, adding that Ratzinger was elected “notwithstanding his age.” Joy over the selection of a new pope immediately mixed with worries that Benedict could polarize a global church, whose challenges include growing secularism in rich countries and inroads by evangelical groups in regions such as Latin America. “He could be a wedge rather than a unifier for the church,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, editor of the Jesuit weekly magazine America. Evelyn Strauch, a 54-year-old housewife from Ratzinger’s home state of Bavaria, buried her head in her hands and wept as she stood in St. Peter’s. “This can’t be true,” she said. “I had hoped so much that we would get a good pope who would do something for women. … This is so terrible.” Mark Wunsch, 27, a religious philosophy student from Denver, was elated. “The cardinals elected a good and holy man who was close to Pope John Paul II,” he said. “He’ll be a wonderful and good leader in preaching the truth and love.”By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer<\/FONT><\/EM> VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday pledged to work to unify all Christians, reach out to other religions and continue implementing reforms from the Second Vatican<\/SPAN> Council as he outlined his goals and made clear his pontificate would closely follow the trajectory of his predecessor, Pope John Paul<\/SPAN> II. Benedict, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, listed top priorities of his papacy in a message read in Latin to cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel for the first Mass celebrated by the 265th leader of the Roman Catholic Church. He said his “primary task” would be to work to reunify all Christians and that sentiment alone was not enough. “Concrete acts that enter souls and move consciences are needed,” he said. The new pope said he wanted to continue “an open and sincere dialogue” with other religions and would do everything in his power to improve the ecumenical cause. <\/FONT>
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