Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. The Enforcer. Panzerkardinal. God’s Rottweiler. Head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly known as “The Inquisition”). Dean of the College Of Cardinals.

Forevermore to be known as Benedict, the sixteenth of that name, he calls himself a “simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord.”

Apparently Cardinal Ratzinger was chosen as a “transitional” pontiff. At 78, he can’t be expected to enjoy as long a reign as John Paul II. But transitional Popes can do unexpected things — John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council and turned the Church upside down. So one never knows.

I’m still laughing at the media, who seem to think that the whole “elect a new Pope” scene can be covered rather like a presidential election with no thought to solemn, religious and secret rite that it is. The reporters that I heard on the radio this morning were obviously dying that they wouldn’t know who had been elected any earlier than the mass of humanity gathered in St. Peter’s Square. They speculated ad nauseum that it probably would not be Ratzinger. I wonder if they have good recipes for crow?

And now they’ll have to find a new topic to entertain us with.

(The subject is not a typo. It means “they have a Pope”. I’m not Catholic.)