Conservative German Named Pope Benedict XVI


Newly elected Pope Benedict XVI waves to the crowd from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican, Tuesday. Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, who took the name of Benedict XVI, is the 265th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. AP-Yonhap

By Kim Tae-jong, Kim Ki-tae
Staff Reporters

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany has been elected the 265th pope, the society of South Korean Catholics are now preparing celebrations for the new pontiff.

About 300 worshippers attended the first special mass to mark the election of the new pope, at Myongdong Cathedral, central Seoul, early yesterday morning.

In the mass administered by Cheong Jin-suk, the archbishop of the Seoul diocese, worshippers prayed for the pope to play a leading role in fostering world peace and welfare for human beings.

``God has sent us a good pontiff. We can expect him to work hard for world peace and human rights as the late pope did,’’ Cheong said in the mass.

Cheong also asked the faithful to follow the doctrines of the new pontiff so that his efforts will come to fruition.

When the news about the election of Pope Benedict XVI were first released around 2 a.m., the church bell tolled for around five minutes signifying a successor to John Paul II had been chosen.

The church lowered its mourning flag for the late pope and hung the flag of the Vatican to celebrate the election of the new pontiff.

Catholic churches all over the nation will hold their own masses to celebrate the appointment of the new pope, and Myongdong Cathedral will hold a huge congratulatory mass at 6 p.m. on Monday but is yet to decide on other events.

After the schedule of the Vatican’s inauguration ceremony for Pope Benedict XVI is fixed, representatives from South Korean Catholic churches will visit he Vatican to deliver congratulatory messages.

Not many prayers here are familiar with the new pope as he has never visited the nation despite the publication of Ratzinger’s books in South Korea. Most believers, however, seem to be happy with the news of the election as it was long delayed.

``I don’t know much about him, but I think he feels pressure since he was elected after the great Pope John Paul II, who had a huge influence on people all over the world with his fine achievements. But I hope he will do as an excellent job as the late pope did,’’ said Song Sang-min, 30, employee of medicine production company.

A Leader With ‘Wisdom and Modesty’

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, has not been a well-known figure among the public here, but some who are acquainted with the man consider him to be a leader with ``wisdom and modesty.’’

``In a meeting with him, I felt that his face was beaming with wisdom, befitting his reputation as a great theologian,’’ Jeong Jong-hyu, dean of the law college at the Chonnam National University, said. Jeong met the pontiff in 1991, then a cardinal in the Vatican. ``I was then deeply impressed by the cardinal’s books and asked him if I could translate his works. He gladly accepted my suggestion and in person, wrote a preface,’’ Jeong said.

Since then, Jeong has translated three works of the new pope, including ``God and the World’’ and ``Salt of the Earth.’’ The new pontiff wrote prefaces for all the Korean versions. ``The new pope is very well aware of the Korean Catholic history,’’ Jeong said.

In the preface for ``Salt of the Earth,’’ published in 1999 here, the pontiff, then a cardinal, wrote that ``Korea’s Catholic Church has a very peculiar history,’’ as ``The Korea churches were not introduced by foreign missionaries,’’ they were founded by the Koreans themselves.

He also wrote ``Korean churches face a double challenge from both Marxist secularism in the North and technology- or market-oriented secularism in the South.’’

The pontiff also acknowledged the Korean churches’ traditional role as a stronghold for the nation’s human rights and liberty under the dictatorship in the 1980s and ‘90s. However, he also wrote, ``The church does not serve any political regime. However greatly designed a political regime may be, the churches will not work for it, as long as it belongs to the political area.’’

Kim Chong-hi, professor emeritus of Chonnam National University, recalled that the new pope seemed intelligent but modest. ``When standing with him, you feel overwhelmed, but not horrified, by his presence,’’ Kim said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency. She studied under the pope in the University of Regensburg in Germany in the late 1960s while the theologian served as a professor.

``When hearing of his election to the papacy, I found myself weeping,’’ she was quoted as saying.

The name of the new pontiff was first introduced to the public here when Rev. Chang Yik, now a cardinal, translated his book ``Einfuerung in Das Christientum (Introduction to the Christianism)’’ in 1974. Then, the Benedict Press published the book under the title ``Kristo Sinang Ojewa Onul.’’

kkt@koreatimes.co.kr

e3dward@koreatimes.co.kr