Semi Precious Rosaries

Benedict XVI

"A Simple, Humble Worker in the Lord's Vineyard"

Pope Benedict's XVI's 1st Public Greeting

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 19, 2005 - German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals, was elected Pope today, the second day of the conclave, and has taken the name Benedict XVI.

Here is a translation of His first greeting from the St. Peter's Basilica.

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

After the great Pope, John Paul II, the Lord Cardinals have elected me, a simple, humble worker in the Lord's vineyard. I am consoled by the fact that the Lord is able to work and act with insufficient instruments and, above all, I rely on your prayers.

In the joy of the risen Lord, confident of his permanent help, let us go forward. The Lord will help us. Mary, his Most Holy Mother, is on our side. Thank you.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, 78 - now to be known as Pope Benedict XVI - was the clear favourite to fill the vacancy left by John Paul II's death.

As one of the most important Cardinal in the Vatican, he presided over the Pope's funeral earlier this month and was said to be among the pontiff's closest friends.

Cardinal Ratzinger has been head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - formerly known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition - since 1981.

Pope Benedict XVI was elected pope at the age of 78. He is the oldest person to have been elected pope since Clement XII in 1730. He served longer as a cardinal before being elected pope than any pope since Benedict XIII (elected 1724). He is the ninth German pope, the last being the Dutch-German Adrian VI (1522–1523). The last pope named Benedict was Benedict XV, an Italian who reigned from 1914 to 1922, during World War I.

Ratzinger was born in Bavaria, Germany. He had a distinguished career as a university theologian before being made the archbishop of Munich and Freising; he was subsequently made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI in the consistory of June 27, 1977. He was appointed as the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by Pope John Paul II in 1981 and was made the cardinal bishop of the suburbicarian diocese of Velletri-Segni on April 5, 1993. In 1998, he was made the sub-dean of the College of Cardinals; later, on November 30, 2002, he became the dean and simultaneously the cardinal bishop of the suburbicarian diocese of Ostia. He was the first dean of the college elected pope since Paul IV in 1555 and the first cardinal bishop elected pope since Pius VIII in 1829.

Before becoming pope, Cardinal Ratzinger was already one of the most influential men in the Vatican, and was a close associate of the late John Paul II. He presided over the funeral of John Paul II and also over the Mass immediately preceding the 2005 conclave in which he was elected, in which he called on the assembled cardinals to hold fast to the doctrine of the faith. He was the public face of the church in much of the sede vacante period, although he ranked below the camerlengo in administrative authority during that time.

Benedict XVI's views appear to be similar to those of his predecessor in maintaining the traditional Catholic doctrines on artificial birth control, abortion, and homosexuality while promoting Catholic social teaching.

Benedict speaks German, Italian and French fluently, and is also proficient in English, Spanish and Latin. He can read ancient Greek and classical Hebrew. He is a member of a large number of academies, such as the French Académie des sciences morales et politiques. He plays the piano and has a preference for Mozart and Beethoven.

Choice of name

The choice of the name Benedict (Latin "the blessed") is significant. Benedict XVI used his first General Audience in St. Peter's Square, on April 27, 2005, to explain to the world on why he chose the name:

"Filled with sentiments of awe and thanksgiving, I wish to speak of why I chose the name Benedict. Firstly, I remember Pope Benedict XV, that courageous prophet of peace, who guided the Church through turbulent times of war. In his footsteps I place my ministry in the service of reconciliation and harmony between peoples. Additionally, I recall Saint Benedict of Norcia, co-patron of Europe, whose life evokes the Christian roots of Europe. I ask him to help us all to hold firm to the centrality of Christ in our Christian life: May Christ always take first place in our thoughts and actions!"

The New Coat of Arms of Pope Benedict XVI has been released by the Bavarian diocese of Munich and Freising, of which Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was once archbishop. The three-sectored shield has three personal elements: a shell, the "Moor of Freising" and "St. Corbinian's bear."

There are also two novelties: the substitution of the miter instead of the tiara, and the addition of the white pallium with black crosses draped below the shield.

The shield has symbols introduced by then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger of Munich and Freising, and later as cardinal, but the composition is new.

The central element, the shield's most noble point, has a large gold shell, whose meaning Ratzinger explained in his autobiography "Milestones, Memoirs: 1927-1977": It is "above all the sign of our being pilgrims, of our being on a journey."

But it also recalls to legend in which St. Augustine came across a boy on the seashore who was scooping water from the sea and pouring it into a small hole he had dug in the sand. When the saint pondered this seemingly futile activity, it struck him as analogous to limited human minds trying to understand the infinite mystery of the divine.

Two other symbols, from the tradition of Bavaria, where the new Pope comes from, are also included in the shield.

The upper left-hand section depicts a brown-faced Moor, crown and collar. This element is not rare in European heraldry, and it is very frequent in the Bavarian tradition. It is called "caput ethiopicum" or "Moor of Freising."

As Ratzinger himself explained in his autobiography, this element has been included in the shields of the bishops of Freising for some 1,000 years.

"I do not know its meaning. For me it is it is an expression of the universality of the Church, which knows no distinctions of race or class since all are one in Christ (Galatians 3:28)," he wrote.

On the upper right-hand section of the shield is a brown bear with a pack on its back. It is "St. Corbinian's bear."

The bear is tied to an old Bavarian legend about St. Corbinian, the first bishop and patron saint of the Diocese of Freising.

According to the legend, when the saint was on his way to Rome, a bear attacked and killed his horse. St. Corbinian punished the bear by making him carry the saint's belongings the rest of the way to Rome.

The bear symbolizes the beast "tamed by the grace of God," and the pack he is carrying symbolizes "the weight of the episcopate," said Cardinal Ratzinger in his autobiography.

"The bear with the pack, which replaced the horse or, more probably, St. Corbinian's mule, becoming, against his will, his pack animal, was that not, and is it not an image of what I should be and of what I am?" continues the cardinal in his book.

On the back of the shield are the keys, in remembrance of Christ's words to Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you lose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:19).

Benedict XVI decided not to include the tiara that traditionally appeared at the top of each Pope's coat of arms, and replaced it with the pointed miter.

The papal miter, represented in Benedict XVI's shield, is silver and has three gold stripes, symbolizing the Supreme Pontiff's three powers: order, jurisdiction and magisterium.

An absolute novelty in Benedict XVI's shield is the pallium, the woolen stole symbolizing a bishop's authority, and the typical liturgical insignia of the Supreme Pontiff, indicating his responsibility to be the shepherd of Christ's flock.

During the first centuries the Popes wore a real sheepskin on their shoulders. Later they began to use a white woolen band.

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