New pope greeted with praise, but also alarm

PARIS - World leaders showered him with praise and jubilant villagers in his German hometown celebrated, but the election of Pope Benedict XVI, a staunch conservative, also triggered deep disquiet and, in some quarters, alarm.
Believers and non-believers pored over the record of cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, including his strict doctrine against gays, women priests, or the use of condoms, for clues as to how he would run the 1.1-billion-strong Roman Catholic Church.
Politicians expressed hope, while AIDS, women's rights activists and some church leaders voiced dismay.
"He is a man of great wisdom and knowledge," US President George W. Bush said shortly after the news was announced Tuesday, recalling Ratzinger's sermon at John Paul II's funeral.
"His words touched our hearts and the hearts of millions. We join with our fellow citizens and millions around the world who pray for continued strength and wisdom as His Holiness leads the Catholic Church."
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Ratzinger would be "a worthy successor" to the Polish-born John Paul II, who died April 2.
"This is a great honor for Germany," Schroeder said. "I think he will be a worthy successor to Pope John Paul II. I congratulate him on behalf of the government and all Germans."
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the new pontiff "brings a wealth of experience to this exalted office."
From Europe to Latin America, the heartland of Roman Catholicism, to the United States, Asia, Africa, tributes poured in.
The World Council of Churches, which groups most of the Christian faiths except the Roman Catholic church, hailed Benedict XVI's pledge to rebuild Christian unity.
The Geneva-based ecumenical movement brings together 342 Christian churches -- Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox -- representing up to 500 million Christians in about 120 countries, but its relations with the Vatican have been fraught.
In Istanbul, the head of the Orthodox Church, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, urged Benedict XVI to pursue the dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox churches launched by John Paul II.
"The fact that the new pope comes from the German nation, which experienced division for years and today plays an important role in the unity of Europe... gives us hope and confidence that he will be able to express the importance of unity, or at least of peaceful cooperation," Bartholomew I said, according to an unofficial translation of his statement in Greek.
Expressions of support also came from the Islamic world.
"I hope the new pope can help to bring harmony between the two worlds (of Islam and Christianity)," said Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, on a visit to Manila.
And some Muslim spiritual leaders also expressed hope that Benedict XVI would follow in his predecessor's footsteps and work to improve inter-faith ties.
Ali Machsan Musa, a senior leader of Indonesia's Nahdlatul Ulama, the world's largest Muslim movement, said he hoped the new pontiff would allow "relations between the various religions to become even better".
Jewish leaders also hailed the new pontiff as a friend of the Jewish people and urged him to continue fighting anti-Semitism.
"He is well known as a friend of the Jewish people. I hope and I pray that he will follow the path of Pope John Paul II," said the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, Israel Lau.
In Africa, South African President Thabo Mbeki said the pontiff could be Africa's ally to fight "racist evil" and "create a new, safer and fairer world."
But in a reminder of the diplomatic challenges facing the new pontiff, Beijing called on him to break ties with Taiwan and stay out of China's internal affairs to create conditions for better Sino-Vatican relations.
No-one celebrated harder than residents in Ratzinger's hometown, the Bavarian village of Marktl am Inn on the Austrian border, where he was born 78 years ago.
Some shed tears while chanting, "Benedict from Bavaria, we want to celebrate you!" Firemen climbed onto a truck and drove around, rallying villagers to gather in the main market square for a celebration, complete with free beer.
No-one was more crushed than believers hoping for a relaxation in the Vatican's iron-clad opposition to contraception, homosexuality and the ordination of women.
"In his record as head of the congregation responsible for doctrine, the new pope was clearly someone who held very, very strongly to a rigid line that most people have found to be a conservative line," said Anglican Archbishop and Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu.
"And we hope, we hope, we hope very, very much that sitting on the papal throne will have the effect of easing the rigidities," he said.
In Latin America, Benedict XVI came under fire from Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff, a proponent of "liberation theology" -- which holds the Catholic Church should promote human rights and social justice.
Boff slammed the new pope as "a hard man with no compassion" and predicted that his papacy would be marked by a "radical continuation" of John Paul II's positions against condoms, and "discrimination" against homosexuals and people infected with HIV.
AIDS activists called on Benedict XVI to ease the papal ban on the use of condoms to prevent HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
"(He) has a great opportunity to help tackle the global HIV pandemic. We hope that he will take it," said Nick Partridge, chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, a London NGO.
But the new pope represented a ray of hope for Swiss-based traditionalist Catholics, who regard Latin as the only language that may be used during mass and have been excluded from the Church for more than a quarter century.
The community said it hoped the "bimillenial tradition of the Church, which has been forgotten and battered during the last 40 years, should at last recover its place during this papacy".
No-one was more shocked at Ratzinger's rise to the papacy than his own brother.
"He sank before the television and isn't saying a word," said Agnes Heindl, housekeeper of the pope's 81-year-old brother, Georg Ratzinger.
"I've never seen him like this."
Later, the pope's brother told German television: "I am very concerned. I would have thought his advanced age and his health which is not very stable would have been reason enough for the cardinals to pick someone else."

04/20/2005 16:56 GMT