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.