4/19/2005: When the gray smoke cleared..
..there was a new pope.
My first reaction to seeing Benedict XVI at the window was that he looked a little more triumphant than a pope should look. Maybe he was just caught up in the moment - maybe the cheering crowds didn't have anything to do with it.
There was something a little disappointing too, after watching all the centuries-old rituals unfold these past few weeks, that two days in a row they couldn't get the famous white smoke/black smoke to work right. Nobody knew what to make of the gray that originally came out both days. And now whoever makes it happen won't have another chance to get it right for who knows how long.
Joseph Ratzinger is the oldest pope to be elected since 1730 and the first German pope since 1522. He follows the last Benedict, who was pope from 1914 to 1922, during WWI. Ratzinger has been a Hitler Youth, a Nazi soldier, a Nazi deserter, and an American prisoner of war - now he's head of the Catholic church, and sovereign of the Vatican. He's conservative and orthodox; he speaks ten languages and plays classical piano.
He's also a best-selling author - at least as of today. Check out his many books
