Pope’s namesake a church mender

In this age of instant communication – cell phones, e-mails, text messaging – the news of the election of the new pope was delivered by gray smoke billowing out of a Vatican chimney, the tradition throughout the centuries for the Roman Catholic Church.

The new pope, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, now Benedict XVI, is predicted to be a religious leader bound by tradition.

The new pope has some almighty tasks in front of him. He must figure out a way to lead a worldwide church of 1 billion members, divided not only by diverse cultures and customs, but by ideology and conflicting beliefs about where their vast church should be headed.

It is said that the name selected by a pope indicates the way in which the pope will lead. According to National Catholic Reporter’s Stacy Meichtry, “Benedict XV was the pope that presided over the church during World War I and is best known for his 1914 encyclical Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, which called a halt to infighting in the church.”

Non-Catholics might wonder why the death of Pope John Paul II, and the election of the new pope, garnered so much media attention and speculation. Yet history reminds us that popes almost always become major players on the world’s stage. Their position is invested with a moral authority; kings and queens, prime ministers and presidents, come calling.

And the pope’s actions and pronouncements can have ripple effects for people of all faith traditions, in negative and in positive ways.

Historians still debate whether Pope Pius XII’s silence against the Nazis during World War II contributed to the death of thousands of Jews who might have been saved had the pope spoken out.

Pope John Paul II was praised for working for the downfall of communism in the former Soviet Union and for speaking out against the war in Iraq. But he was criticized for not bending on the teaching against the use of artificial contraception, including condoms, which can help prevent the spread of AIDS, a deadly pandemic now in Africa where the Catholic population is rapidly growing.

In his first words to the world, Pope Benedict XVI said he was “a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord.” This vineyard encompasses the entire world now, connected by satellite feeds and the Internet.

Minutes after the name of the new pope was announced, pundits and church experts were making predictions about the kind of pope Benedict XVI will be for the Roman Catholic Church and the rest of the world. It is much too early to know.

The best leaders, spiritual or secular, are shaped not just by their own visions, but by helping to realize the hopes and dreams held by the people they lead and influence. This complex leadership task began for Benedict XVI in simple, ceremonial ways Tuesday – in puffs of gray smoke, the chiming of bells and the announcement “We have a pope,” uttered in the ancient, and traditional, Latin: Habemus Papam!