Habemas Papam

In what came as a surprise to me, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected as the 265th Pope today. The name he chose for himself is Benedict XVI. It has already been suggested that Ratzinger was selected because he is old (78) and thus won't have a very long reign. Even if he dies at 84, as Pope John Paul II did, it would be a 6 year Pontificate. Others have suggested that Ratzinger selected his name because his Benedict predecessor, Benedict XV, was Pope for only 8 years, and thus Ratzinger is signifying that his papacy will be short. Either way, this is not the man I believe to be the unifier that the Catholic Church so desperately needs right now, but I suppose it was God's will and we shall see how things play out.

UPDATE: I am also shocked by how quickly Wikipedia updated Ratzinger's entry from "Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger" to "Pope Benedict XVI."