victor: Well, as everyone knows Cardinal Ratzinger is now Pope Benedict XVI. Talk about a short conclave, 2 days... who would have thought it would have been so fast? Well I dont know much about the German cardinal but here are some facts I dragged out from a few websites:

- 6th German Pope
- 1st since the 11th century
- previous Dean of the College of Cardinals
- against Liberation theology
- in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith
- believed that Muslim Turkey did not belong in Christian Europe
- issued a document saying that Catholicism was the only true religion (against other christian denomonations)
- condemned communism
- supports fundamentalism and against relativism
- son of a police officer
- served in the German Military in WW2
- defected near the end of the war and taken as a POW
- ordained in 1951
- Cardinal of Munich

so, that is the short on the new pope. What do you guys think about the selection and what it will mean for the Catholic church and the world in the near future?  ¶ 10:05 PM