The deciphering of ancient biblical text settles an old argument: the true “number of the beast” is 616:

“This is very early confirmation of that number, earlier than any other text we’ve found of that passage,” Dr. Aitken said. “It’s probably about 100 years before any other version.”

A BBC reality show puts five men, one of them an atheist in the pornography trade, in a monastery for forty days and nights. All five were deeply affected:

Although participants were not required to vote each other out, they faced the challenge of living together in a community and following a disciplined regime of work and prayer. By the end, the atheist, Tony Burke, 29, became a believer and gave up his job producing trailers for a sex chat line after having what he described as a “religious experience”.

Gary McCormick, 36, the former Ulster Defence Association member, who spent much of his early life in prison, began to overcome his inner demons.

Peter Gruffydd, a retired teacher, regained the faith he had rejected in his youth and Nick Buxton, 37, a Cambridge undergraduate, edged closer to becoming an Anglican priest.

The fifth “novice”, 32-year-old Anthony Wright, who works for a London legal publishing company, started to come to terms with his childhood traumas.

In health news, we discover that spirituality and the practice of religion may help slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Don’t tell the Dems — it’ll only upset them.

Another shocking poll from ABC News: 81% of American Catholics approve of the selection of Pope Benedict XVI. Moreover, 73% are very or somewhat enthusiastic about the selection.

Whatever will Democrats do with all that campaign material about “Evil Emperor Benedict” and “Nazi Benedict”?

Oh wait . . . judging from their behavior recently they’ll use it and lose more seats in both houses of congress.

Pakistani clerics have a message for the new pope:

Islamic leaders in Pakistan are urging the new head of the Catholic Church to combat “grudges” against Muslims in the Western world.

A Pakistani religious leader says he’s praying that Pope Benedict the 16th “will play a vital role to promote religious tolerance, reconciliation, religious freedom, human dignity and peace in the world.”

And a cleric in the city of Karachi says the pope should “try to restrain the forces that have grudges against Muslims.”

“Promote religious tolerance.” “Religious freedom. “Human dignity”. Very nice.

Meanwhile in Pakistan, a mob of 400 people tracked down a man, chasing him through fields and up a tree. Someone in the angry lynch mob got the man out of the tree — by shooting him dead.

And what was his crime? Rape? Murder? No, it was blasphemy — they thought that he had burned a copy of the Koran.

This’ll heat up the moonbat pot into a roiling boil real fast:

German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican theologian who was elected Pope Benedict XVI, intervened in the 2004 US election campaign ordering bishops to deny communion to abortion rights supporters including presidential candidate John Kerry.

Heh.

Today, white smoke signaled that Cardinal Ratzinger was elected to be the next pope, the first from Germany since the 11^th century. He has chosen to be known as Pope Benedict XVI .

The newly elected pope issued his first blessing to the nearly two hundred thousand people waiting outside the Vatican:

“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 after being introduced by Chilean Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estivez.

“The fact that the Lord can work and act even with insufficient means consoles me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers,” the new pope said. “I entrust myself to your prayers.”

CNN points out that Ratzinger isn’t universally popular in his homeland, although to be fair they do note the cheers and jubilation from his adopted hometown of Traunstein where he attended St. Michael’s seminary.

The AP paints Ratzinger as a divisive leader who has alienated churchgoers by adamantly enforcing church orthodoxy.

Bill Hobbs has an eloquent answer to this charge:

One of the things the mainstream secular media never seemed to quite understand about Pope John Paul II was that his stances on such issues were rooted in his understanding of eternal, unchanging truth.

As does Captain’s Quarters:

I believe that Benedict’s previous strong stands against moral relativism holds a special lesson in today’s world. It means the Church will take stands on what we see as eternal truths, even if those positions cause others to complain about old-fashioned values in a modern world. …

An impressive Cardinal has become an impressive Pope. I will pray for his health and success, and ask all of you to join me.

Buzzmachine found a Ratzinger Fan Club blog, although the amount of traffic seems to have taken it down for the moment.

Right Thinking from the Left Coast says:

Any liberal American or European Catholics who had hoped for a more liberal stance on abortion or gay marriage or women priests just got told to go suck the big one.

One would think that that is exactly how liberals are viewing this. Take the post from Lean Left, which seems indicative of the liberal reaction, calling Ratzinger the Goebbels of the Vatican:

Well, for Catholics and the dwindling number of Westerners who still take Catholicism seriously, it’s time to kiss the Dark Ages hello again. For the rest of us, we can only hunker down and await an onslaught of rabidly reactionary politicking from an extremely rich, tax-exempt organization that claims mandatory authority over its members, including public office-holders. The medieval wing of an organization that just barely got over Galileo has now claimed the right to declare itself “infallible” (the irony of which they never seem to get). If you thought John Paul II was bad, wait till you get a load of Pope Torquemada Jr.

The unwelcome silver lining is this: he will certainly accelerate the race to irrelevance of the Catholic church in educated, industrialized countries.

Ah, the intellectual elitism of the left. [Note: Lean Left is usually more reasonable than this post would lead one to believe. A good addition to the blogroll.]

MaxSpeak follows in a similar vein, saying calling Ratzinger “Pope Wingnut the First“. [But also a worthy blogroll addition.]

Other lefties aren’t so kind. A famous moonbat whom I won’t put on the blogroll prints unprintable things. Another Rovarian Conspiracy points to this DU post that puts the pope’s name under a picture of the evil Emperor from Star Wars. [HT to Wizbang]

Wizbang finds more lefty lunacy:

I dont [sic] know much or anything about him BUT that he was a Nazi or a member of the Nazi party. How does he stand on issues and how far back will he turn the church.

The discussion thread just goes downhill from there.

Interesting that those who profess to believe in rehabilitation of prisoners to the point where they believe we can trust them with votes and guns as soon as they walk out of the gates of a penitentiary are unable to believe that a young man, who was once a mere German military anti-aircraft unit helper, can be the spiritual leader to over a billion people around the world.

Ah, the legendary forgiveness of the left.

Besides, a closer look at Ratzinger’s history shows not only that he was drafted, but also deserted at great risk:

In 1943, he was drafted as an assistant to a Nazi anti-aircraft unit and sent to Munich. A year later, he was released, only to be sent to the Austrian-Hungarian border to construct tank barriers.

He deserted the German army in May 1945 and returned to Traunstein -a risky move, since deserters were shot on the spot if caught, or publicly hanged as examples to others.

When he arrived home, US soldiers took him prisoner and held him in a camp for several weeks.

Upon his release, he entered the seminary.

Critics will note that Ratzinger was a member of Hitler’s youth organization at age 14. Those more knowledgeable will point out that this is when membership was made compulsory.

Carpe Bonum posts a short bio as well as some of Ratzinger’s positions on various issues.

Outside the Beltway has an excellent post that puts some context around some of Ratzinger’s comments.

The Anchoress has some excellent thoughts on the subject.

As for me, I will trust the system that has given us popes for centuries, good and bad, will continue to do so. I will pray that this one is as good as he can be, though by all accounts my prayers will be unnecessary. This is a sincere and dedicated individual. He will do as his heart tells him to do, and that is all we can ask of anyone.

Good luck, Pope Benedict XVI, and may God be your guide.

Update: As expected, Davids Medienkritik has an excellent roundup of reaction from the German press.

The Belmont Club offers this observation:

Ratzinger comes at a time when his own native Western Europe is gripped with a crisis similar in some respects to that which divided Eastern Europe in John Paul’s day. Like John Paul, he arrives at the Papacy in the midst of a global war: what the Cold War was to John Paul the War on Terror must be to Benedict XVI. He is an unknown quantity, without extensive pastoral experience; a philosopher Pope: the Pope of the Memes. And it is in this last where Benedict’s historical significance may lie. He is the first Pope of the Internet Age and stands uncertain, as we all are, on its brink.

Keep those words in mind when reading the Gates of Vienna’s post relating Benedict XV to the new Benedict.

Then, if you have the stomach for some vile rhetoric, read Dizzy Girl and Confederate Yankee‘s roundups of moonbattery response.

Oh, and a cybersquatter in Florida bought BenedictXVI.com a few weeks ago, although he swears he isn’t going to sell it off to the highest bidder. Then again I don’t really trust him — he’s the guy behind Drudge Retort.com. The domain currently redirects to his personal website.

With Pope John Paul II not even buried yet, the buzz is on about a replacement. Unseemly as it may be, people are talking about it because it’s important and steeped in politics.

The Washington Times has an article about a controversial favorite:

Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria, one of the top contenders to become pope next week, is best known for his interfaith experience with Muslims and his meteoric rise from a poor African village to the halls of the Vatican.

He was the youngest Catholic bishop in the world when he was consecrated Aug. 29, 1965, at 32. Today, he’s a favorite of traditional Catholics because of his withering denunciations of dissent on all the hot-button topics: population control, homosexuality and pro-choice Catholic politicians.

Props to Slate who was talking about Francis Arinze way back in October of 2003 (as well as a Hispanic, an American and a Jew, who are all contenders). In his now-republished article Slate says of Arinze:

Ah, but what an exquisite dilemma for liberals. A black pope who, on social issues, makes Phyllis Schlafly seem like Jane Fonda. In a commencement address this year at Georgetown University, Arinze drew protests by saying the institution of marriage is “mocked by homosexuality.” If he did become pope and liberals criticized his antigay, anti-abortion views, could conservatives possibly resist the temptation to charge racism? Might be too much to ask.

Unfortunately, I think Arinze will turn out to be too much of a gamble for the cardinals — too new, too controversial, and even too conservative for one of the most conservative organizations on the planet. Besides, I think the Italian-controlled church is ready to bring religion back home with an Italian pope.

Other pope-replacement related blogging and news:

• Window on the Arab World, and More! writes about Christian-Muslim relations and the role that Francis Arinze has played in trying to bridge that gap.
• The AP reports that the pope’s funeral is getting unprecedented coverage in the Arab world, a “media blitz” of his life and times, complete with interviews with Muslim clerics..
• Outside the Beltway lists some favorites and will do a post on each of those that made the Reuters’ list, and makes an excellent start with his post on (predictably) Francis Arinze.
• An AP article on Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels‘ chances.
• Bookmakers have Father Dougal Maguire of Craggy Island, Ireland as a long shot at 1,000 to 1. Hint: Father Maguire is fictional.
• Say Uncle is tired of the coverage and wants a pope-free zone. Perhaps he can get some relief by watching the eclipse that will happen on the day of the pope’s funeral.

Russell Stover Candies are testing a new product, chocolate crosses, in about 5,000 stores nationwide. Seems innocuous enough — heck, it might even remind people about the real reason we have Easter in the first place. But then again:

However, not all Christians are happy about it. Chomping on a chocolate cross can be offensive to some, said Joseph McAleer, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic diocese in Bridgeport, Conn.

“The cross should be venerated, not eaten, nor tossed casually in an Easter basket beside the jelly beans and marshmallow Peeps,” he said. “It’s insulting.”

People will get upset about anything.

Athiesm is in decline in Europe, although it is paganism that is taking its place:

Two developments are plaguing atheism these days. One is that it appears to be losing its scientific underpinnings. The other is the historical experience of hundreds of millions of people worldwide that atheists are in no position to claim the moral high ground.

Three fourths of Americans believe that the display of the Ten Commandments on government property should be allowed.

The highly-liberal Village Voice paints Hillary’s latest efforts to redefine herself is really her “reclaiming her moral roots” and goes on to claim that God Is a Centrist Democrat.

Meanwhile, Russians want to return to the good old days of purges:

According to the survey published Tuesday by ROMIR Monitoring of 1,500 Russians, only 17 percent backed the current reform programme while 21 percent favoured a “return to socialism”. 57 percent said reform should be more socially targeted.

The last time more Russians wanted communism than Putin’s reform was in May 2001, ROMIR said.

Start going to church and you may live longer:

A 12-year study tracking mortality rates of more than 550 adults over the age of 65 found that those who attend services at least once a week were 35 per cent more likely to live longer than those who never attended church.

The research also found that going to church boosted an elderly person’s immune system and made them less likely to suffer clogged arteries or high blood pressure.

Susan Lutgendorf, psychology professor at the University of Iowa, who carried out the study, said: “There’s something involved in the act of religious attendance, whether it’s the group interaction, the world view or just the exercise to get out of the house. There’s something that seems to be beneficial.”

Robert Wallace, a co-author of the report, added that doctors could even prescribe a course of church attendance to benefit patients.

So if Hillary gets her way and we go to government-subsidized medical care, would a doctor prescribing church attendance be sued for put God back into government?