The papacy is one of the oldest institutions on earth—only the emperor of Japan can claim that his position is older. Pope John Paul II was the 262nd pope, continuing a tradition that started with St. Peter the Apostle, the leader of the original twelve disciples of Jesus Christ. Each pope is very aware that he is a direct descendent of St. Peter in the eyes of the Catholic Church, and each is addressed as “Your Holiness.” St. Peter was believed to have been crucified in a marshy area on the right bank of the Tiber River in Rome. St. Peter’s Basilica, the world’s largest church, is built on that burial site and is one of the most important symbols of the church.

Throughout history, popes have been warriors and men of peace, scholars and diplomats, politicians and bureaucrats. They have called for crusades and wars and have negotiated peaceful alliances with other powers. Some popes were former slaves, and some former aristocrats. Some have been strong and successful leaders, and some weak and failing exiles. Only two popes have been given the title “Great” after their names (many say John Paul II will be the third): Pope Leo the Great (pope from a.d. 440 to 461) confronted a rampaging and rapacious Attila the Hun and convinced him to spare Rome. When the barbarians known as the Vandals later captured the city, he once again negotiated a peace and saved the people of Rome from torture and death. Pope Gregory the Great (590–604) saw Rome survive famine and plague and reached out to other churches to strengthen relationships with other faiths. He sent a delegation to England in 596 to help revive the Catholic Church there.

Many other popes have been considered to be effective leaders. Pope Innocent III (1198–1216) may have been the most powerful pope. He proclaimed that the pope had the power to overthrow kings and was inferior only to God. He instituted many reforms in the church and called for the Fourth Crusade. Pope Pius IV (1559–1565) eliminated much corruption and scandal and ushered in a golden age for the Roman Catholic Church that lasted for centuries.

Several popes have been disastrous for the church—they were the wrong men at the wrong time. Most historians agree that Pope Pius VI (1775–1799) was a vain man with a closed mind, unable to react to the changes around him. He was sent into exile by French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who neither feared nor respected the pope and his leadership. He died a desperate and humiliated prisoner. Several popes are remembered by history as arrogant and corrupt, and several of these in succession culminated in a revolution against them and the church’s excesses and greed, led by Martin Luther. We now call this the Protestant Reformation, and the issue of the need for periodic church reform has never gone away.

The pope is the supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church and the head of a very large organization. During its long struggle to survive persecution and dissension from within, the Catholic Church evolved into an efficient organization that has its origins in the Roman Empire itself. The church’s enduring multilayered structure is similar in many ways to that of modern large corporations and armed forces. Just as feudalism had kings, lords, vassals, and serfs in descending order of power and control, the church has the pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, and nuns. Just as corporations can delegate through CEOs, vice presidents, managers, and workers, the pope can delegate through hundreds of cardinals and some 4,200 bishops, 400,000 priests, and 1,000,000 nuns to the roughly one billion Roman Catholic Church members worldwide. His word is in some very real sense their command.

The church’s strong hierarchical organization is tough and resilient, allowing for replacements to be made quickly and easily because the larger units are similar to the smaller units. It has the advantage of not fighting certain tendencies in human nature, especially the needs for order and authority. Lines of authority are clear, and rules and penalties are in writing and known to all. Like all organizations, when threatened the church closes ranks and tries to control damage, sometimes ruthlessly.

Each pope inherits a legendary bureaucracy, somewhat similar to what a U.S. president faces upon election. The church has a secretary of state and several standing committees: the Congregations for Bishops, Clergy, and Doctrine of the Faith are powerful agencies managed by church administrators, many of whom are lifelong bureaucrats. Unlike a U.S. president, the pope does not have a legal or constitutional responsibility as part of the church. He does, however, have a religious and moral authority and is in fact one of the few authorities on earth to proclaim ultimate moral values. Just as the United States has had ongoing tensions between state governments and the federal government about who has the power to do what, the Catholic Church has had a long history of tension between the pope and his authority in Rome and national and local churches that want the power to make decisions closer to home.

The pope is also a head of state, where he does have legal and political power. He rules over the Vatican, a city-state of 109 acres carved out of Rome. Some 450 people live in Vatican City permanently, and the pope has a special passport in case people are unsure of who he is when he travels. The Vatican is a unique place, containing the world’s largest and most famous church, the Apostolic Palace, where the pope and several cardinals live. It also contains museums, relics, documents, books, priceless works of art, and sentimental mementos. No one knows all that is there. The Vatican’s wealth, beauty, and secrecy are legendary and have survived through the ages.

Very soon after the death of John Paul II, the 65 men who are part of an inner circle called the College of Cardinals met in the Sola Bologna, a large and glorious meeting room in the Apostolic Palace. All were aware of the history of the papacy, the lines of authority in the church, and the importance of what was to happen next. But before a new pope could be elected, John Paul II’s funeral needed to be arranged. The dean of the College of Cardinals was a man named Joseph Ratzinger, a controversial lightning rod in the church. Ratzinger had been called Pope John Paul’s “enforcer,” capable of deflecting criticism from the pope by publicly defending the church’s conservative positions against contraception, abortion, the ordination of women as priests, and many other issues. During the pope’s long illness, Ratzinger had taken over several administrative responsibilities and had been invaluable in seeing the pope and the church through a very difficult period. Now, he took control of the funeral planning.

On April 8, 2005, Ratzinger presided over the largest funeral in history—some 2,000,000 mourners filled the streets of the Vatican and Rome all the way to the Tiber River. Some were very rich, some were very poor, and some were not even particularly Catholic or even religious. All knew they had to be part of a farewell for one of the most dynamic world leaders. Heads of state in the enormous crowd included presidents and kings; for the first time in history, a U.S. president attended a papal funeral. They heard Joseph Ratzinger give such a moving funeral speech that millions began to notice what Vatican insiders had known for years—that he was an articulate and forceful spokesperson for the church. Cardinal Ratzinger clearly revered the pope, but he also conveyed the deepest sorrow at losing a good friend.

Soon after John Paul’s death, the cardinals of the Catholic Church who were not living in or near the Vatican began their travels to Rome, leaving Bombay, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Khartoum, and cities all over the world to attend the funeral. Their main goal for their long journeys, however, was to attend a special meeting called a conclave to elect the next pope. The period between the death of one pope and the election of another is called the sede vacante, and this interim period always has high drama both on the world stage and behind the scenes. When a pope dies, the cardinal electors can then openly discuss his replacement, something they would never do while he was still alive. Political maneuvering by papal candidates, called papabili, takes place very quietly during small dinners, walks around St. Peter’s Square, and quick conversations over coffee. Being a candidate in a papal election is a far cry from what American political candidates experience. The “papabile” cannot present a platform and cannot even acknowledge that he is running. He can, however, maneuver quietly for votes and try to block his opponents. Successful papal candidates must be men of prayer and conscience above all else, but they must also be interested in exercising power. They must be otherworldly and worldly at the same time, and only a special few are even considered.

The cardinals knew the new pope would face one issue above all else: the decline of Christianity in Europe and the United Kingdom. They were almost certainly aware of a Gallup Millennium Survey that showed only 20 percent of Western Europeans attend church services at least once a week (in comparison, 47 percent of North Americans and 82 percent of West Africans attend weekly). The de-Christianization of Europe is relatively recent, and there are many explanations, ranging from the pessimism arising out of so many twentieth-century wars (World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Middle East wars) to the rise of alternatives to formal religion. Some think the Catholic Church’s conservative stance on so many issues has finally alienated whole generations. The insistence that priests be celibate and that women cannot be ordained as priests certainly has turned some away from both Catholicism and from organized religion.

The cardinals were well aware that attendance at Mass has been dropping and the numbers of priests and nuns have been decreasing. They knew that liberal and reform factions in the church are constantly at odds with the conservatives who resist changes. What to do about these declines, and who best to lead the church in this divided condition, were the subjects that loomed over all else.

One papal title is Patriarch of the West, and others include Bishop of Rome and Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City. Because of this, an Italian or at least a European candidate has often been favored, reflecting the historical geographical center of the church. Cardinals from Latin America and Africa must have argued that a new geographic center for the church is emerging, one outside of Europe. Their voice and influence are growing as a group, and some media outlets speculated that the church would have its first black or Latin American pope. Some papal historians noticed that, in the past, a vigorous, outgoing, and adventurous pope like John Paul II had been followed by someone more introspective and more content to stroll through the Vatican gardens rather than climb the Alps. The serious candidates had to be published authors to prove their theological qualifications and needed to speak many languages. Since Pope John Paul II was such an important and visible world figure, the cardinals may have felt that they needed to elect an especially experienced and well-known candidate.

Gradually, the cardinals began to form coalitions around the issues that were important to them and their regions, and three front-runners emerged. (The following is only informed speculation, since nothing official is ever recorded from the conclaves and the ballots are burned in the Sistine Chapel stove.) Archbishop Carlo Maria Martini, the archbishop emeritus of Milan, became one powerful candidate. He is Italian, which is always a consideration for the electors, many of whom are from Italy. In fact, many newspapers from around the world were predicting the return of an Italian pope. He was also a progressive reformer, who would almost certainly try to bring sweeping changes to the church. He was 78 years old, as was another other front-runner, Joseph Ratzinger. Cardinal Ratzinger had impressed the world with his handling of the pope’s funeral and had impressed insiders with his administration of church duties during the pope’s illness. With his record of conservative values similar to John Paul’s, he stood in direct opposition to Archbishop Martini. The third candidate was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina, who was quite clear about not wanting the job. However, since roughly one-half of the world’s Catholics live in Latin America, Cardinal Bergoglio had to be considered. Other candidates seemed to recede into the background, and the competition heated up very quickly. The time had come to vote.

Finally, on April 18, 2005, a procession of 115 cardinals entered St. Peter’s Basilica for a special Votive Mass for the election of the pope. As dean of the College of Cardinals, Ratzinger looked out to the men in red and white sitting in semicircular rows and said:

How many winds of doctrine we have known the recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking…. The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves—thrown from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism…. from atheism to vague religious mysticism…. Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by every wind of teaching, looks like the only attitude…. We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain. However, we have a different goal: the Son of God, true man…. In Christ, truth and love coincide…. Love without truth would be blind; truth without love would be like a resounding gong.

Several cardinals would admit later they were very moved by the power and clarity of Ratzinger’s speech. The electors then went to the Sistine Chapel, in the Apostolic Palace. They sat at tables around the edge of the chamber, placing their red clerical hats in front of them. Uniformed Swiss Guards stood outside the door, as they have for centuries, guarding the pope and the Vatican.

The secret balloting began. A pope is elected by a twothirds majority plus one vote, so in this 2005 conclave a new pope needed 77 votes to get elected. The ballots are counted under one of the most famous paintings in the world, Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, which shows Jesus Christ ordering some souls to Heaven and some to Hell. When a candidate gets the number of votes needed, the traditional notice is for white smoke to be sent through a narrow chimney out of the chapel’s roof. If no one gets the votes needed, black smoke is emitted and another vote is taken after a break.

On the afternoon of April 18, two hours after the cardinals had entered the chapel, the world saw black smoke leave the chimney. Even though a first-ballot election is rare, many of the expectant pilgrims waiting outside wept openly, bitterly disappointed and fearful that a long and bitter fight was coming. Even though the balloting is a top secret, many experts have since speculated about what was happening. Close watchers of the process thought that Archbishop Martini, Cardinal Bergoglio, and Cardinal Ratzinger split the first vote, with Ratzinger in the lead. A second ballot had Ratzinger increase his lead, and many thought the momentum was unstoppable from there. The cardinals who had not voted for him began to rethink their positions, given that growing core was going to stick with him. Rumors about a secret meeting between Ratzinger and Martini are now part of the story of this election, with many speculating on what was said. The tension was mounting, but the agonizing uncertainty was coming to an end.

The next day, April 19, on the fourth ballot, Joseph Ratzinger received a clear majority of votes. He was then asked by a group of the highest ranking and oldest cardinals whether he accepts the election to pope, and if so, what he would like his papal name to be. Ratzinger accepts, much to the relief of those hanging on his every word, and then declares that his papal name will be Benedict XVI. A Vatican journalist close to the pope, H.J. Fischer, later wrote that Ratzinger had a number of reasons for choosing the name. First, Saint Benedict was the founder of the part of the church devoted to monasticism, the practice of retreating into a safe and self-contained place to study, work, and pray. Ratzinger was a scholar at heart, and knew the importance of Saint Benedict’s teachings. Also, the last pope with the name Benedict was Benedict XV, who served throughout the First World War and tried to remain neutral and pacifying under the most difficult conditions. He helped reunite Europe after that first global conflict ended. Benedict XV had a pivotal healing role, at least temporarily, one that Ratzinger must have admired. Finally, the word Benedict derives from the Latin “benedictus,” which means blessed, and surely Ratzinger hoped to be blessed in his time as pope. It was a Latin word he had heard all his life sung during Mass, and the very sound of it must have pleased and comforted him.

At 6:48 p.m. Rome time, a cardinal deacon proclaimed: “We have a pope!” Because of some fault in the chimney, gray smoke at first appeared above the Sistine Chapel, confusing many below. Then the Vatican bells start ringing, and whiter smoke began to float out. Now the world knew a new pope was about to step forth onto the central balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square. Joseph Ratzinger, now the Holy Father and Pope Benedict XVI, appeared dressed in a white cassock and skullcap, wrapped in a red and gold cape, and opened his arms to the world.

His first words to the crowd below were, “Dear brothers and sisters, after the great pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble worker in the Lord’s vineyard.” The people below began to chant “Viva Il Papa,” “Long live the pope!” Many waved flags, from all countries. Stores closed, celebrations began, and drivers honked horns so incessantly that camera crews had trouble with their sound systems. Gridlock hit Rome, not for the first time, and not for the last. An instant holiday was in full swing.

Some experts and faithful followers from around the world were surprised or skeptical at the election. Ratzinger is German, and no German has been elected pope in almost 500 years. He is a conservative. He is unusually humble and reserved, and not flamboyant—Vatican residents had become used to seeing him walk to work with a tattered black briefcase and informal clothing. He didn’t seem to want to be pope, dismissing the idea publicly many times—he said he would rather be guillotined. He had hoped he could retire. But Pope John Paul II had believed in him and promoted him quickly. All saw his skill at speaking and his command of five languages (German, French, Italian, English, and Spanish). He can read old Greek, Latin, and classical Hebrew. He is clearly a brilliant intellectual, an academic dedicated to interpreting words. He has a near-photographic memory as well as encyclopedic knowledge. All who had seen him celebrate Mass commented on the delicacy and devotion that he brings to it, and his loving eulogy for John Paul II filled many cardinals with affection for him. He would be a dramatic change from John Paul II, but some were looking forward to a less hectic papacy.

Barely twelve hours after his election, Pope Benedict made his first formal speech as pope, addressing the cardinals in the Sistine Chapel:

I consider this a grace obtained for me by my venerated predecessor, John Paul II. It seems I can feel his strong hand squeezing mine; I seem to see his smiling eyes and listen to his words, addressed to me especially at this moment: “Do not be afraid!” ... I address myself to everyone, even those who follow other religions or who are simply seeking an answer to the fundamental questions of life and have not found it yet…. I am particularly thinking of young people.

He must have stopped at some point in those first few days as pope and reflected on just how far he had come from a very small town in Bavaria, Germany.