Habemus Papam. Whoopee!

A week has passed since the white smoke went up from the Sistine Chapel chimney. I'm still not sure what to think about it all. Somehow I had the feeling that Joseph Ratzinger was a more likely choice than he'd been given credit for. And with the tremendous void left for many in the wake of JPII's death, it's only natural that the College of Cardinals might opt for an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" choice. The problem is, some things ARE broke, and I'm not sure this is the man to fix them. If his past writings are any indication, it will be not just more of the same, but a LOT more of the same.

Still, we are supposed to trust that the College of Cardinals was guided by the Holy Spirit (that's God, ya know) in their selection. So I can't, as some are hysterically doing, dismiss this out of hand as a pope to just ride out. After all, I think that a pope should be orthodox, traditional, etc., and I think that's something that Benedict XVI no doubt will be. (Of course, those on the extreme right of the Latin Church -- and some who are outside it because they have this sede vacante belief, that Paul VI and his successors were/are not really popes, but we won't get into that -- who think Benedict XVI is a modernist/relativist who wishes to create one world religion and such nonsense. So in a sense he's got something for every taste.)

What concerns me is what the tone will be with respect to certain civil matters that I believe are matters of justice and should not concern the Church. That gay marriage thing, for one. The Vatican set the tone already this week in its response to Spain's new legislation:

The head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council on the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, denounced the legislation as profoundly iniquitous.

So what else is new? (I, for one, find Catholic Spain's action in this respect to be refreshing.) There's plenty of other less-than-encouraging signs of what's to come, and voluminous writings from his tenure in the Curia as doctrinal "watchdog" that make even the most enthusiastic gay Catholics wince. I expect few surprises from the Vatican on this topic.

My mood for now is wait and see, but I'm not optimistic. But I'll continue to pray for him and that his pontificate will be one of positivity and not just an endless stream of "thou shalt nots". Christianity isn't primarily about that, it's about love, the love of God that became incarnate in His Son and dwelt among us. And what is our response -- to God and to others -- to that love, a love that also dwells within us because of our baptism into Christ.