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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Cardinal Ratzinger Elected Pope Benedict XVI

Aired April 19, 2005 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


AARON BROWN, HOST "NEWSNIGHT": Our lead tonight was written in Rome in Latin. We have a pope, they said. Those ancient words spoken in the early evening, Rome time. Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, a staunch conservative, his resume tells us, John Paul's right-hand man, smart, some say tough. For the world's billion Catholics the throne of St. Peter is occupied once again tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, HOST "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS": Smoke has been coming out of that chimney now for the past several minutes. It is unclear whether that smoke is white, signaling there's a new pope, or black, signaling there's still no new pope.

BROWN (voice-over): The moment arrived a little before 6:00 in the evening Rome time. But when the moment arrived, nobody knew quite what it meant. Was it white smoke or black? Pope or no pope? Down in the square, the faithful tried to make sense of it. Ten minutes later, they and we and all the world got an answer.

(BELLS TOLLING)

BROWN: With the bells came cheering and celebrating and, once again, waiting. Another 40 minutes went by, then a moment that hasn't been seen in a generation for most, and a lifetime for many.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN LATIN)

BROWN: The announcement made, the new pope emerges, and, for the first time, blesses the flock. Above all, he says, I entrust myself to your prayers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Benedict XVI is the first German in a millennium to serve as pope. Unlike Karol Wojtyla, who was barely known outside the circles of the Vatican, Joseph Ratzinger went into today's conclave with a high profile. Some would say he was the favorite. He comes with a nickname, "Cardinal No," because of his reputation for being unbending when it comes to church doctrine.

It is, of course, way too early to say how the papacy will change the man or how the man will shape the job. But tonight there are some clues, and so we begin with CNN's Jim Bittermann.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's a policeman's son who became pope. The Vatican's enforcer of the faith who has now become the absolute spiritual monarch of one-sixth of the planet. And Pope Benedict XVI will carry with him, as he begins his reign, the tough and controversial points of view he's expounded in the past, including that lecture the day before he was elected pope about returning to fundamentals.

CARDINAL JOSEPH RATZINGER (via translator): We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for- certain and which has, as its highest goal, one's own ego and one's own desires.

BITTERMANN: Those who know his earlier years, though, when he was Cardinal Archbishop of Munich, say he is a warm and much more personal side than his public pronouncements would indicate. Among them, for example, he said that the modern world has caused feminists to be adversaries of men. He called homosexuality an intrinsic moral evil. He argued that Muslim Turkey does not belong in Christian Europe, and he issued a document maintaining that Catholicism was the only true religion and questioning the validity of other religions, even other Christian ones.

JOHN ALLEN, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: I don't think the drama of Benedict XVI's pontificate is going to be whether he changes his positions, because I think it is quite unlikely that he's going do so in the main. He regards them as fixed matters of objective truth.

BITTERMANN: Those who do not always see eye-to-eye with the new pope when he was cardinal said after his election that they would work with him.

CARDINAL WALTER KASPER: When it comes to the issue of faith, there was never a difference. But among professionals, it's the norm to see that there's different visions and different aspects. But now he's pope, it is a different relation now.

BITTERMANN: Still, some parts of his past will draw attention. Even though he eventually deserted, he, by his own account, briefly served with a German anti-aircraft battery during World War II. He has a background as an academic but he's not loved by all his colleagues.

REV. THOMAS REESE, S.J., "AMERICAN MAGAZINE": It's going to be problematic with the academic community in Europe and the United States and Latin America because Cardinal Ratzinger is seen as the man who was involved in silencing theologians and having them removed from teaching positions. So, I think that academia does -- a lot of people there don't think that he respects academic freedom.

BITTERMANN (on camera): Even so, one of his harshest critics, Swiss reformer Hans Crons (ph) said the pope deserves a new chance. Some popes, like Paul VI, went into the conclave as a progressive cardinal and emerged as a conservative, Crons said, while others, like John XXIII did just the opposite.

Jim Bittermann, CNN, Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: It also bears mentioning that the Second Vatican Council took place when Joseph Ratzinger was already an intellectual force to be reckoned with. Like the pope that came before him, he brings a compelling biography to the table.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): He was born in Bavaria, a month after Charles Lindbergh flew his solo flight across the Atlantic. And he was baptized, unusually so, on the same day. According to his autobiography, he regarded it as no small moment. "To be first person baptized with the new water," he wrote, "was seen as a significant act of providence." He was the youngest of three, born to parents named Mary and Joseph, and by the time he entered the seminary in 1939, Hitler was in power in Germany and World War II was imminent.

ARCHBISHOP JOHN J. MYERS, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: He had the experience of being forced by the Nazis in Germany into the army and then actually deserting. And he was actually, I think, if I'm not mistaken, briefly an American prisoner of war.

BROWN: By the early '50s, he was both ordained as a priest and immediately began studies for his doctorate in theology. Intellectually, he was viewed as a rising star in the church from early on, and by the late '60s, when student protests blanketed both the United States and Europe, it was clear he was deeply angered by the demonstration. He wrote that they were tyrannical, brutal and cruel.

Joseph Ratzinger has been in Rome for nearly a quarter of a century at the side of John Paul II, the Vatican official closest to him in terms of viewpoint. He is also the man who had complete charge of policing those Catholics whom he or the pope believed had strayed too far.

GREG TOBIN, AUTHOR "THE HOLY FATHER": And there are people who were censured, there were teachers, theologians, who were censured or advised to change their teachings in order to conform with the doctrine of the church.

So, people remember that. There's a long paper trail of his own writings that will be examined in great detail over the next weeks and months to bring that picture forward.

BROWN: The past, where popes and others are concerned, does not always predict the future. It does, however, give clues. And in the new pope's past, this are clues aplenty.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And some of those clues are not hard to read at all, some a bit more complicated. John Allen can help with both. He literally wrote the book on the new pope, his biography of then-Cardinal Ratzinger.

John, it's nice to see you. A couple of quick things, and then, perhaps, a little more substantive. What does his choice say about how the college of cardinals see the moment and the church at this moment?

ALLEN: Well, fundamentally, Aaron, I think the first thing to say is, they see the task of the moment as continuity with the pontificate of John Paul II. As you rightly pointed out, Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, was the intellectual architect of most of that papacy.

Secondly, I think they see the need for a pope who is going to solidify the work of that pontificate, especially in terms of the internal dynamics of the church. As you and I have been talking over the last couple of weeks, to the extent that cardinals had a criticism of John Paul II, it was that he was perhaps a bit inattentive to the internal nuts and bolts of church administration. I'm quite confident that will not be true of this pontificate, and so I think they see this as a way to institutionalize and nail down the key points of John Paul's pontificate.

BROWN: A couple of areas now where we know how he thinks or at least how he thought as cardinal. It may change. His views of other religions, problematic at all?

ALLEN: Well, certainly problematic to some. Cardinal Ratzinger -- it should be said, in his dealings with other religious leaders, has always been quite gracious. But on the intellectual level, he certainly believes that salvation comes only through Jesus Christ, that is a core teaching of the church that has to be affirmed. What that means is that Christianity is in a sense a superior kind of revelation, a superior religious system, and he expressed this in a, by now quite famous, September 2001 document called "Dominus Jesus," or "The Lord Jesus," in which he said that followers of other religions are, and I'm quoting here, "in a gravely deficient situation with respect to Christians." That was language that was certainly seen as offensive by some.

BROWN: Does he -- would he be different from John Paul II in that regard?

ALLEN: Well, in terms of content, no. In terms of tone, possibly so. Remember, John Paul II was famous for his outreach to other religions. He called other religious leaders to pray for him with peace in Assisi in 1986. He made a point of meeting with other religious leaders when he traveled. He met with Muslims, for example, more than 60 times during the course of his pontificate. But, of course, you know, Aaron, as you pointed out, Ratzinger's job for the last quarter century was to be the policeman in effect of church doctrine. How he's going to be as pope and whether he'll pick up some of his grand stylistic gestures and forms of outreach that we associated with his predecessor, remains to be seen.

BROWN: All right, a couple of things he said the other day that are interesting to me. He said every day new sects -- excuse me, are created. With cunning which tries to draw those into error. When he uses the word "sects, " s-e-c-t-s, what does he mean?

ALLEN: Well, probably one of two things. That's a word that's used particularly in the developing world to refer to some very aggressively missionary Neo-Protestant evangelical and charismatic movements. That could be one point of reference. The other would be the proliferation of sort of amorphous new age religious movements in the first world. And I think, undoubtedly Cardinal Ratzinger would see both of those as threats to orthodox Roman Catholicism. And, therefore, as challenges that have to be met under his pontificate.

BROWN: He talks about relativism a good deal, or he did the other day in his homily. When he uses the word relativism how is he using it?

ALLEN: Well, this is probably, if you had to pick one core idea that distinguished his tenure as the doctrinal czar under Paul John, it would be that, the struggle against relativism. And what he means is the collapse of the idea that there is objective truth. That is, the belief that your truth may be different than my truth, and they're both equally valid. In Ratzinger's view, that simply is not the case. There is a truth with the capital T out there, and that ultimately the supreme truths about human life, human destiny are captured in Christian revelation. And so, he would see relativism as the core threat to the faith in our time. And undoubtedly this will be a pontificate that talks a great deal about the need to defend the idea of objective truth in a world that seems to have given up on it.

BROWN: John, for a lot of us, the last month or so has sort of come full circle. Today you've been a part of it. You have lots more work to do guiding us through. It's good to see you, friend. Thank you.

ALLEN: Thanks, Aaron.

BROWN: Much -- much more on the program tonight starting with the first decision every new pope makes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Benedict XVI.

ALLEN: By what name do you wish to be known? And it's actually quite interesting because that's first window we might have into the kind of pontificate he wishes to have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN (voice-over): Every pope chooses a new name but what does the choice say about the pope?

Also tonight a hometown reacts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I'm happy. We have the first Bavarian pope.

BROWN: But in Bavaria where Joseph Ratzinger grew up in the shadow of Nazism, not everyone is celebrating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (through translator): At age 78, it's not good to take on such a job which challenges the entire person, and the physical and mental existence.

BROWN: That insight from the new pope's brother.

How American Catholics feel about Benedict XVI.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just hoping for somebody who's more open to people with problems, and birth control and women in the church.

BROWN: As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was known for his traditional views on the church. Will those views push Catholics in this country away? From Rome to New York and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In a moment how the naming of Cardinal Ratzinger is being received among Catholics in this country and much more. First, though, at just about a quarter past the hour, time for other headlines of the day.

Erica Hill is in Atlanta for us tonight. Erica, good evening.

ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: Good evening to you, Aaron.

We start off with a warning from the State Department about the possibility of what it calls imminent terrorist action. The warning is for Tunisia. And the government is urging Americans there to remain vigilant and to exercise caution. The State Department says it has no information on specific targets, timing or possible method of attack.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee postponed a vote on John Bolton's nomination to be ambassador to the United Nations. That cast his nomination in doubt. Committee members say they'll take another look at allegations about Bolton's temperament, and his method of dealing with subordinates. The committee could hold another hearing and call Bolton back for more testimony.

Prosecutors in the Michael Jackson child molestation trial say they'll wrap up their case next week after nine weeks of testimony. The mother of Jackson's accuser concluded her testimony today under cross examination. She denied she solicited money from celebrities for her son's cancer treatment.

Congress gave final approval to a bill today that will help parents skip or mute sections of movies that contain foul language, violence or nudity. The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act insures makers of DVD players and other devices that filters they install won't violate the copyrights laws. The bill also makes it a federal crime to pirate moves by recording them in theaters and to distribute or a movie or a song before it's commercial release. And 25 years in making, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum opened today. President Bush was in Springfield, Illinois, for the dedication with the first lady. The 145 million dollar museum houses a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, as well as a handwritten version of the Gettysburg Address. A couple of things to check out may be on your summer vacation.

And that's the latest from Headline News.

Aaron, back to you.

BROWN: Erica, thank you very much.

On we go. He awoke today as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he goes to sleep tonight as Pope Benedict XVI. One measure of how much life can change in a day. Every pope chooses a new name, and every choice provides an opportunity to speculate. In this case, why Benedict?

here's Rudi Bakhtiar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We heard something in today's announcement that we probably won't hear much of in the future, the new pope called by his Christian name. Now, Joseph Ratzinger has a new name, one he chose for himself before he stepped onto the balcony, Pope Benedict XVI. Like everything else involved in selecting a new pontiff, selecting a new name is also steeped in tradition.

ALLEN: By what name do you wish to be known? And it's actually quite interesting because that's the first window we might have into the kind of pontificate that he wishes to have.

BAKHTIAR: So, maybe something of the measure of the man can be taken by knowing his namesake. Pope Benedict XV reigned during the dark days of World War I. A war remember for unspeakable death and destruction. The pope favored neutrality, but condemned the war's atrocities. But this pope may have been thinking back to other Benedicts.

FATHER JOSEPH KOTERSKI, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: I suspect that what he's doing is thinking all the way back to St. Benedict, who was a 6th century individual. Who is the founder of Western Monasticism, that is the beginning of monasteries in Europe.

BAKHTIAR: There have now been 16 popes named Benedict, but it's not the most popular papal name. That would be John. There were 23 of those. Benedict and Gregory are now tied for second place, followed by Clement, Innocent and Leo. And there were more interesting papal names as well, like Hilarius in 461, Telesphorus in 125, or Lando in 913, the last original papal name. But the tradition of the popes picking their own names dates back to 533 when a pope named Mercurius changed his name to John, John II, to be exact, because he was named for the god Mercury and thought a pope shouldn't have a pagan name. Since then, it's been about pontiffs picking the names of predecessors they admire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: John Paul I was brilliant when he chose that particular name, wanting to suggest both the newness and the continuity. And then John Paul II had taken that same name, trying to emphasize that he stood for precisely the same project, for the revitalization for the church, and yet for the fact that it had to be in continuity with what the church has always been.

BAKHTIAR: One name we probably won't see again, that of the original pope, Peter.

ALLEN: Peter, obviously, was the first pope in the line. He was the leader of the church chosen personally by Christ himself, and I think there's a sense and always has been that he is irreplaceable and unrepeatable. Therefore, not only would it be in poor taste, but it would be seen as somewhat arrogant for another pope to take that name.

BAKHTIAR: Rudi Bakhtiar, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Delia Gallagher, CNN Vatican analysis, and she is back with us tonight, after a long day.

Everyone's speculating on what this pontificate might be like, so go ahead and weigh in. Do you think this pope will be out there as John Paul was out there? Will he be an evangelical pope trying to convert people? Or will he take care of business at the Vatican?

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: Well, you know, Aaron, Cardinal Ratzinger, from what we've been able to see of him here at the Vatican is an intellectual-type man. He doesn't have the same sort of immediate charisma of Pope John Paul II. We can expect a pontificate which is more reserved than the one we've just gone through.

But that doesn't mean that he won't be out in the public traveling, certainly, because he realizes that that is now a legacy of Pope John Paul II and something which will be interesting to see is how he himself will have to change. He'll have to adapt to this new role as pope. He's no longer just the doctrinal authority. He has to embrace the entire world and deal with all the different problems throughout the world. So, I think following on your story about what's in a name, St. Benedict, of course, was also the man who sort of saved Christianity in Europe. And I think that that's certainly foremost in Cardinal Ratzinger's mind, this idea of kind of coming back to basics in Catholicism, and in that sense, saving Catholicism from all of these things that he's talked about in his homilies in the last week, relativism and modernism and secularism. That's certainly going to be one of his top issues in addition to as you say, organizing, reorganizing, the internal structure here at the Vatican.

BROWN: Let's talk about a couple of those things, actually. Popes these days don't have armies to force people to believe. He has to do it on the weight of his argument. Europe has become very secular. Italy is very secular in many respects. So how does he do that? How will he go about that?

GALLAGHER: Well, I think his argument there is quite simple. He has said it before. He thinks that Catholicism needs to come back to its central core beliefs and to maintain those beliefs very firmly, and that that in itself, the truth of those beliefs, he thinks will draw people to it. He doesn't believe that it needs to water itself down, as we say, in order to meet modern culture.

On the contrary, he thinks it needs to tighten up and just be simple and true to the tradition since Jesus' time that Catholicism has maintained. And this is something that we have to keep in mind that a pope comes in and he has to carry on the tradition of the church. So, he can lead it in new directions. He can make certain changes in teaching. But Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, is not one of those who believes in changing according to the waves of the modern world. He said it, it's a boat in a modern ocean. And he wants to keep it strong.

BROWN: You were asked earlier if you agreed with the idea that this is a transitional pope, and it seemed to me, you reacted to that as perhaps an oversimplification of what the elevation of this 78- year-old man actually will mean.

GALLAGHER: Well, exactly, Aaron. I think that we have to keep in mind that at least 77 of the College of Cardinals voted for this man, and I don't think that they voted for him just to kind of keep things in place until they can get a younger candidate. Certainly there are many good, qualified, younger candidates that might come from areas outside Europe in another papacy, but I think the vote for Cardinal Ratzinger tonight was a definite vote for a continued legacy of John Paul II, but also a vote for the man himself, and a vote for the strength of what they recognize in his ability to tell the story of the Catholic Church.

BROWN: Delia, good to talk to you. Thank you.

GALLAGHER: Thanks, Aaron.

BROWN: Delia Gallagher at the Vatican.

Still ahead on the program tonight, American Catholics, how they feel about their pope. And Germans, on a native son now heading the church. He's loved by many in Germany, not by all. No one is, of course. Take a break, around the world. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: He's a man of great wisdom and knowledge. He's a man who serves the lord. We remember well his sermon at the pope's funeral in Rome, how his words touched our hearts and the hearts of millions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: We touched on it a bit earlier tonight, this pope, if you will, has a record. All popes do. This one, like the last one, has shown a strong preference for faith and purity over diversity of thought. Even he has said, if it means a smaller church over time, even though it may complicate what is already a complex relationship.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): American Catholics have long lived in two worlds when it comes to the man who sits on the throne of St. Peter. They have respected, even loved the man, and they have to a great extent, ignored parts of Catholic doctrine. And that seems unlikely to change with this new pope.

CHUCK BRADY, NEW JERSEY: I was just hoping for somebody who is more open to people with problems, and birth control, and, you know, women in the church, and you know, the last pope wasn't that way.

BROWN: Predicting what a new pope will do or become is a fool's errand. But as Americans looked at his past, his sometimes dismissive view of the sex abuse scandal, his traditional view on issues of birth control, celibacy and the like, there was a sense of disappointment in some.

TAMARA HALLISEY, CATHOLIC: I think it will affect me the way it's affected me in the past, which is to take what I can from my Catholicism and apply it to my life, and basically reject the rest and go against what the official teachings of the church.

BROWN: And what of some other issues, the marriage of priests, for instance?

DR. JOSEPH KOTERSKI, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: Whether married men would ever be ordained? The Orthodox Church does allow it. There are parts of the Catholic Church where this has been the case. In general, though, it is a disciplinary question on which I don't see him making a change, but on which he could make a change if he wished.

BROWN: But the traditionalist new pope is not likely to do that. He will be like his predecessor, it seems, on the conservative wing of a long historical ideological debate.

GREG TOBIN, AUTHOR, "HOLY FATHER": I think the ongoing debate between what we call liberals and conservatives within the Catholic Church will only be intensified by this choice. It is clearly meant to be a transitional period, because of his age. So the questions that have arisen and that John Paul II really attempted to address have not gone away.

BROWN: So for some today was a day of concern. But to American Catholic leaders, it was also a day of great joy.

BISHOP WILLIAM SKYLSTAD, CHAIRMAN, U.S. CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS: I have found him to be a man of great humanity, keen intellect, and a good listener with a fine sense of humor. His extensive experience in church leadership is combined with a profound academic background. His intellectual curiosity is wide ranging. He has a genuine grasp of the theological and social issues which we have faced -- which have faced the church for the last two centuries. He's a scholar as well as a committed churchman.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A look from here. Over the last few hours, CNN, "USA Today" and Gallup conducted a poll of American Catholics to measure their initial feelings about the new pope. When asked which they're more likely to follow concerning difficult moral questions, 74 percent say they will follow their own conscience. Only 20 percent say they will follow the pope's teachings.

The gap is not as wide when it comes to birth control; 56 percent said they're bothered by the pope's position banning Catholics from using birth control, but 43 percent said they are not bothered by the ban. Those numbers might surprise some people, I think.

And in what would encourage the Vatican, 61 percent said they believe Pope Benedict will unite the church. Only 19 percent said he would divide it.

In Germany today, many felt a sudden burst of pride. A native son chosen to lead the church. But others expressed more mixed emotion, including Pope Benedict's brother. In Munich for us tonight, CNN's Chris Burns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In his native Bavaria, surprise and jubilation by his supporters. In Munich, where Joseph Ratzinger, the son of a policeman studied theology, then became archbishop and cardinal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I'm happy. We have the first Bavarian pope.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): To be honest, I didn't expect Ratzinger to be elected to be the next pope.

BURNS: Though even in Germany's conservative Catholic stronghold, criticism of the new pontiff, long dubbed God's Rottweiler, who was the Vatican's chief watchdog for doctrine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It is catastrophic, because this man is far too conservative. With his views, I mean, this is a bad thing for the Catholic Church.

BURNS: A recent poll indicates Germans are split over the man now called Pope Benedict XVI. More than one-third oppose him; less than a third support him. Nevertheless, a leftist chancellor expresses pride.

GERHARD SCHROEDER, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): The new pope, Benedict XVI, is German. It's a great honor for the whole country.

BURNS: A key test for the pontiff will come here in Cologne this summer, during the church's European youth jamboree.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I think it is great, really great. I'm already looking forward to World Youth Day. I think this will be the first big challenge, and we'll see whether he will continue to be that conservative. I don't think so.

BURNS: Back in the Alpine foothills of Bavaria, where the pope still has a home, his brother expresses some reservations about the new position.

GEORGE RATZINGER, BROTHER OF POPE BENEDICT XVI (through translator): At age 78, it's not good to take on such a job which challenges the entire person and the physical and mental existence. At an age when you approach 80, it's no longer guaranteed that one is able to work and get up the next day.

BURNS: Reservations his brother obviously paid no attention to.

Chris Burns, CNN, Munich, Germany.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Ahead on the program tonight, photos tell the story, from the faces of the flock around the world, who look at a new pope for leadership, to the problems that Pope Benedict must confront in the farthest corners of the world.

We'll take a break first from New York. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: St. Peter's, coming up on a new day, Wednesday morning there. It's quite pretty, isn't it?

Simple is not a word that often springs to mind when describing the state of Catholicism today. There is no one single picture of the church. So here now, many pictures. Still photographs. And NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The word "Catholic" means universal. And the Roman Catholic Church is very nearly that. There are more than one billion Catholics around the world. A widely scattered, profoundly diverse flock awaits the leadership of the newly named pope.

Fewer than one-third of the faithful are in the traditional, now waning Catholic strongholds of old Europe. The greatest number, four of every 10 Catholics, are in Latin America. Brazil, home to the largest population of baptized Roman Catholics in the world, as many as 150 million. Central America. Mexico. Latin American Catholics have not always felt they had a voice in Rome equal to their number. That is a challenge the new pope must address, as is the growing attraction of Pentecostal and evangelical churches in the region.

The new pope will face different challenges in Africa, which has more than doubled its numbers of baptized Catholics in the past 20 years, to 140 million. Many local African dioceses are wondering, how will Rome under the new pope respond to a critical shortage of priests? Might there be new roles for lay people? How will the Vatican respond to the devastation of AIDS? Might there be new discussions about condom use to prevent disease?

And how will the church, a voice for the poor since Christ's time, address the continent's everlasting poverty, oppression?

Dealing with repression will be a challenge for the church in China, where as many as eight million Catholics worship, many underground.

China and India are both emerging world powers where the Vatican will have to work to increase its influence, its standing.

The Vatican will need to work just as hard in the many parts of the world where Catholics coexist uneasily with growing numbers of Muslims. Will the new pope be able to bridge the divide between Christianity and Islam the way John Paul II did between Christianity and Judaism?

That may prove easier than bridging the divide between the spiritual and the material in the wealthiest nations, especially the United States, hallowing a secular age to bring back to the fold the millions of Catholics, especially younger ones, who see the church as less than relevant, bring back those wounded by the priest sex abuse scandal, bring back those who disagree with the church on issues of abortion, homosexuality, the role of women in the church.

One billion Roman Catholics, half the world's Christians, now look to Pope Benedict XVI for leadership, guidance and what his chosen name suggests -- benediction, blessing.

Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Ahead on the program, we'll hear from three people with strong opinions on the choice of a new pope. We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In a moment, three different views on the new pope, but first at about a quarter to the hour, time to look at some of the other news of the day. Erica Hill in Atlanta again. Erica, thank you.

HILL: Hello again, Aaron.

Screening in America's airports doesn't appear to be getting any better. The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general reports federal screeners are hard-working, but the results of recent security tests are not much improved from two years ago. Internal investigators were able to smuggle knives, guns and fake bombs onto planes at a number of U.S. airports.

The only person charged in the United States in connection with the September 11th attacks is now offering to plead guilty. According to sources, Zacarias Moussaoui has told prosecutors, as well as the judge presiding over the case, that he's willing to enter a guilty plea. The judge will meet with Moussaoui this week to discuss his intentions and to determine whether he is mentally competent to enter a plea.

Being obese apparently not as dangerous to one's health as previously thought. New calculations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention place it at number seven on a list of preventable causes of death in the United States, not second, as the CDC reported earlier this year. The new study finds people who are modestly overweight actually have a lower risk of death than people of normal weight.

And that's the latest from HEADLINE NEWS at this hour. Aaron, back to you.

BROWN: Erica, thank you.

Now, three different views of the decision made by the College of Cardinals today. We're joined from Washington by Monsignor William Kerr, the executive director of the Pope John Paul II cultural center. Here in New York, William Donohue, the president of the Catholic League. And Mary Alice Williams, who has covered the papacy in the past for CNN and NBC, and now for CBS Radio. We're glad to see you all.

Monsignor, we'll start with you. We talked late last week about this. Is this the sort of choice you wanted to see, or did you want to see something else?

MONSIGNOR WILLIAM KERR, EXEC. DIRECTOR, POPE JOHN PAUL II CULTURAL CENTER: Well, I think I was a bit surprised that we chose someone from within the Vatican itself. The pope whom we just buried was a man who reached out to the entire world. Certainly we have a European, we have a person from the Vatican. We have a very talented, a very, very well informed and well educated man. A person who has worked with orthodoxy, certainly kept the church focused these last 23 years. I was surprised, but I know he will do well, and I believe firmly the Holy Spirit has guided the cardinals in their choice of this man to be pope.

BROWN: Let me draw the others in.

Mr. Donohue, I assume you feel good about the choice. One of the things that I thought was interesting that was said earlier was this idea that, look, the pope should say, this is who we are, this is what we believe, and all of you who believe that, come with us. And not worry so much about what others believe or don't believe. Is that how you see it?

WILLIAM DONOHUE, PRESIDENT, CATHOLIC LEAGUE: As a matter of fact, I do. When he was Cardinal Ratzinger, he said that maybe a smaller church would be a better church. I happen to agree with that.

I don't believe that you can have a tent that becomes too big, because it tends to collapse in the center. That is to say, there have to be ordinates. There have to be parameters. And what he's trying to say is that there are absolutes in the Catholic Church. Women -- trafficking in women and children is wrong for everybody at all times. Slavery, genocide, prostitution, torture. And it's not a matter of different strokes for different folks. I like that.

BROWN: Respectfully, those are the easy ones. We can all be against slavery, slam dunk.

DONOHUE: OK.

BROWN: The problems, Ms. Williams, are in some of the less obvious or the less slam dunk ones.

MARY ALICE WILLIAMS, CBS RADIO: In more nuanced areas.

BROWN: Birth control, and celibacy...

WILLIAMS: That's right.

BROWN: ... and marriage and the like.

WILLIAMS: I think there are many Catholics in America who wanted a more conciliatory person. And this -- this cardinal, now pope, has a long track record of writing. So we know what he stands for. As a matter of fact, yesterday, in his homily, he spoke of the evils of relativism, liberalism and feminism. A clear signal. And not one that many American Catholics wanted to see, because there is pain in this church. It is a fractious church. It has listened to some of his doctrinal changes and wondered if they're being listened to at all.

BROWN: I'm always a little bit nervous when people say that's not what American Catholics want to hear. Because I actually think Mr. Donohue, for example, would represent an American Catholic and he's perfectly happy. And my point here is not that you're wrong, because you may very well be right, it's that Catholicism in America is a lot of different things. It's conservative and it's more moderate, and trying to find someone to shepherd all of that, Mr. Donohue, is difficult stuff.

DONOHUE: It is. But I think he has the ability to do it. I mean, this is a man who certainly is well schooled. He's a great intellectual. I think he will reach out. You know, people have been surprised before. We saw Richard Nixon, the anti-communist, who reached out to China, right? How do we know that this pope, Pope Benedict, may not surprise some people and put some things on the table that might even upset a few orthodox Catholics?

BROWN: Do you want him to, by the way?

DONOHUE: You know what, if that's what the Holy Spirit wants, I'm all in favor of it. And you know, you'd be more likely to get people like me to listen to him, as opposed to a leftist who I'm going to hold as being somewhat suspect to begin with. So, if he wants to move the church in a different direction, I'm going to listen to him.

BROWN: Let me go to the monsignor for a second. Is there -- we talked about this last Friday, in fact, that people become pope. They're elected, they assume a name, but something they grow into. Do you have any sense of -- that he will become something we don't see on the page right now?

KERR: Well, Aaron, I do. I think once a person puts on the papal cassock and stands before the world as the shepherd, I think the person is transformed. I don't think there's any sense that the person continues to be precisely what he was previously. So, I do believe that this man will grow into this particular office. I think that he has all of the capabilities of being a great leader. I was surprised that the cardinals chose him, but then, you know, I've been surprised many times before. And the leaders have turned out to be wonderful. I think this is a very talented and very gifted person. And I look forward to his leading the church. And certainly I look forward to working with him.

BROWN: Let me give Mary Alice the last word here.

WILLIAMS: Remember that the church is not the pope or the bishops, it's the community of the faithful. It's everybody in the noisy, busy, fractious lot who cares about it. And there is a huge church here in America that operates outside the pews. Nuns who will never be able to serve as priests, as far as we know, who are performing priestly functions. Faithful who are out there in the world doing things, good works as Catholics do, without being in the pews.

BROWN: Do you agree with that?

DONOHUE: Well, certainly, but I have to believe that people have to understand that this pope is going to do exactly what the previous popes have done with regard to women priests, it's not likely to happen. It doesn't mean that women are second class citizens and can't have a prominent role in the Catholic Church. I think, that's a dissident voice.

BROWN: We'll have a new pope and a new conversation. We'll just keep it going for months, and hopefully for years to come. It's nice to see you all. Thank you. Morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: OK, very quickly tonight, morning papers. Just saw something amusing. Anyway, translated from the Italian -- the Vatican's newspaper, "We have a pope, Joseph Ratzinger -- Benedict XVI." I guess you all understood that in Italian or is that Latin. That's Latin I think. Yikes.

"The Washington Times," "Cardinals Elect Ratzinger Pope."

And my favor headline today, "New Pontiff Loyal to Church Theology." I would hope so.

"Boston Herald," a little straight ahead here. "Catholics welcome Pope Benedict XVI. Papa!" That's a nice picture of him, by the way.

The "Dallas Morning News," everybody leads with the pope today. "An Act of Tradition" is the "Dallas Morning News" lead.

Down here if you will, "Government Overstated Deaths Tied to Obesity." Go ahead and have another Twinkie or two. Have a diet soda. Don't -- no, have a regular soda. It won't hurt you. It is good for you, actually, it turns out.

"A Simple Humble Worker," "Richmond Times-Dispatch" lead. I like that headline.

We'll end with the "Chicago Sun-Times." Same picture blown up a bit. "Benedict XVI" is the headline in the "Sun-Times". The weather tomorrow in Chicago, new pope or not, chill out.

We'll wrap it up in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Good to have you with us tonight, we're in L.A. for the rest of the week beginning tomorrow. I hope you'll join us 10:00 Eastern time. Until then good night for all of us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired April 19, 2005 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST "NEWSNIGHT": Our lead tonight was written in Rome in Latin. We have a pope, they said. Those ancient words spoken in the early evening, Rome time. Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, a staunch conservative, his resume tells us, John Paul's right-hand man, smart, some say tough. For the world's billion Catholics the throne of St. Peter is occupied once again tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, HOST "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS": Smoke has been coming out of that chimney now for the past several minutes. It is unclear whether that smoke is white, signaling there's a new pope, or black, signaling there's still no new pope.

BROWN (voice-over): The moment arrived a little before 6:00 in the evening Rome time. But when the moment arrived, nobody knew quite what it meant. Was it white smoke or black? Pope or no pope? Down in the square, the faithful tried to make sense of it. Ten minutes later, they and we and all the world got an answer.

(BELLS TOLLING)

BROWN: With the bells came cheering and celebrating and, once again, waiting. Another 40 minutes went by, then a moment that hasn't been seen in a generation for most, and a lifetime for many.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN LATIN)

BROWN: The announcement made, the new pope emerges, and, for the first time, blesses the flock. Above all, he says, I entrust myself to your prayers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Benedict XVI is the first German in a millennium to serve as pope. Unlike Karol Wojtyla, who was barely known outside the circles of the Vatican, Joseph Ratzinger went into today's conclave with a high profile. Some would say he was the favorite. He comes with a nickname, "Cardinal No," because of his reputation for being unbending when it comes to church doctrine.

It is, of course, way too early to say how the papacy will change the man or how the man will shape the job. But tonight there are some clues, and so we begin with CNN's Jim Bittermann.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's a policeman's son who became pope. The Vatican's enforcer of the faith who has now become the absolute spiritual monarch of one-sixth of the planet. And Pope Benedict XVI will carry with him, as he begins his reign, the tough and controversial points of view he's expounded in the past, including that lecture the day before he was elected pope about returning to fundamentals.

CARDINAL JOSEPH RATZINGER (via translator): We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for- certain and which has, as its highest goal, one's own ego and one's own desires.

BITTERMANN: Those who know his earlier years, though, when he was Cardinal Archbishop of Munich, say he is a warm and much more personal side than his public pronouncements would indicate. Among them, for example, he said that the modern world has caused feminists to be adversaries of men. He called homosexuality an intrinsic moral evil. He argued that Muslim Turkey does not belong in Christian Europe, and he issued a document maintaining that Catholicism was the only true religion and questioning the validity of other religions, even other Christian ones.

JOHN ALLEN, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: I don't think the drama of Benedict XVI's pontificate is going to be whether he changes his positions, because I think it is quite unlikely that he's going do so in the main. He regards them as fixed matters of objective truth.

BITTERMANN: Those who do not always see eye-to-eye with the new pope when he was cardinal said after his election that they would work with him.

CARDINAL WALTER KASPER: When it comes to the issue of faith, there was never a difference. But among professionals, it's the norm to see that there's different visions and different aspects. But now he's pope, it is a different relation now.

BITTERMANN: Still, some parts of his past will draw attention. Even though he eventually deserted, he, by his own account, briefly served with a German anti-aircraft battery during World War II. He has a background as an academic but he's not loved by all his colleagues.

REV. THOMAS REESE, S.J., "AMERICAN MAGAZINE": It's going to be problematic with the academic community in Europe and the United States and Latin America because Cardinal Ratzinger is seen as the man who was involved in silencing theologians and having them removed from teaching positions. So, I think that academia does -- a lot of people there don't think that he respects academic freedom.

BITTERMANN (on camera): Even so, one of his harshest critics, Swiss reformer Hans Crons (ph) said the pope deserves a new chance. Some popes, like Paul VI, went into the conclave as a progressive cardinal and emerged as a conservative, Crons said, while others, like John XXIII did just the opposite.

Jim Bittermann, CNN, Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: It also bears mentioning that the Second Vatican Council took place when Joseph Ratzinger was already an intellectual force to be reckoned with. Like the pope that came before him, he brings a compelling biography to the table.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): He was born in Bavaria, a month after Charles Lindbergh flew his solo flight across the Atlantic. And he was baptized, unusually so, on the same day. According to his autobiography, he regarded it as no small moment. "To be first person baptized with the new water," he wrote, "was seen as a significant act of providence." He was the youngest of three, born to parents named Mary and Joseph, and by the time he entered the seminary in 1939, Hitler was in power in Germany and World War II was imminent.

ARCHBISHOP JOHN J. MYERS, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: He had the experience of being forced by the Nazis in Germany into the army and then actually deserting. And he was actually, I think, if I'm not mistaken, briefly an American prisoner of war.

BROWN: By the early '50s, he was both ordained as a priest and immediately began studies for his doctorate in theology. Intellectually, he was viewed as a rising star in the church from early on, and by the late '60s, when student protests blanketed both the United States and Europe, it was clear he was deeply angered by the demonstration. He wrote that they were tyrannical, brutal and cruel.

Joseph Ratzinger has been in Rome for nearly a quarter of a century at the side of John Paul II, the Vatican official closest to him in terms of viewpoint. He is also the man who had complete charge of policing those Catholics whom he or the pope believed had strayed too far.

GREG TOBIN, AUTHOR "THE HOLY FATHER": And there are people who were censured, there were teachers, theologians, who were censured or advised to change their teachings in order to conform with the doctrine of the church.

So, people remember that. There's a long paper trail of his own writings that will be examined in great detail over the next weeks and months to bring that picture forward.

BROWN: The past, where popes and others are concerned, does not always predict the future. It does, however, give clues. And in the new pope's past, this are clues aplenty.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And some of those clues are not hard to read at all, some a bit more complicated. John Allen can help with both. He literally wrote the book on the new pope, his biography of then-Cardinal Ratzinger.

John, it's nice to see you. A couple of quick things, and then, perhaps, a little more substantive. What does his choice say about how the college of cardinals see the moment and the church at this moment?

ALLEN: Well, fundamentally, Aaron, I think the first thing to say is, they see the task of the moment as continuity with the pontificate of John Paul II. As you rightly pointed out, Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, was the intellectual architect of most of that papacy.

Secondly, I think they see the need for a pope who is going to solidify the work of that pontificate, especially in terms of the internal dynamics of the church. As you and I have been talking over the last couple of weeks, to the extent that cardinals had a criticism of John Paul II, it was that he was perhaps a bit inattentive to the internal nuts and bolts of church administration. I'm quite confident that will not be true of this pontificate, and so I think they see this as a way to institutionalize and nail down the key points of John Paul's pontificate.

BROWN: A couple of areas now where we know how he thinks or at least how he thought as cardinal. It may change. His views of other religions, problematic at all?

ALLEN: Well, certainly problematic to some. Cardinal Ratzinger -- it should be said, in his dealings with other religious leaders, has always been quite gracious. But on the intellectual level, he certainly believes that salvation comes only through Jesus Christ, that is a core teaching of the church that has to be affirmed. What that means is that Christianity is in a sense a superior kind of revelation, a superior religious system, and he expressed this in a, by now quite famous, September 2001 document called "Dominus Jesus," or "The Lord Jesus," in which he said that followers of other religions are, and I'm quoting here, "in a gravely deficient situation with respect to Christians." That was language that was certainly seen as offensive by some.

BROWN: Does he -- would he be different from John Paul II in that regard?

ALLEN: Well, in terms of content, no. In terms of tone, possibly so. Remember, John Paul II was famous for his outreach to other religions. He called other religious leaders to pray for him with peace in Assisi in 1986. He made a point of meeting with other religious leaders when he traveled. He met with Muslims, for example, more than 60 times during the course of his pontificate. But, of course, you know, Aaron, as you pointed out, Ratzinger's job for the last quarter century was to be the policeman in effect of church doctrine. How he's going to be as pope and whether he'll pick up some of his grand stylistic gestures and forms of outreach that we associated with his predecessor, remains to be seen.

BROWN: All right, a couple of things he said the other day that are interesting to me. He said every day new sects -- excuse me, are created. With cunning which tries to draw those into error. When he uses the word "sects, " s-e-c-t-s, what does he mean?

ALLEN: Well, probably one of two things. That's a word that's used particularly in the developing world to refer to some very aggressively missionary Neo-Protestant evangelical and charismatic movements. That could be one point of reference. The other would be the proliferation of sort of amorphous new age religious movements in the first world. And I think, undoubtedly Cardinal Ratzinger would see both of those as threats to orthodox Roman Catholicism. And, therefore, as challenges that have to be met under his pontificate.

BROWN: He talks about relativism a good deal, or he did the other day in his homily. When he uses the word relativism how is he using it?

ALLEN: Well, this is probably, if you had to pick one core idea that distinguished his tenure as the doctrinal czar under Paul John, it would be that, the struggle against relativism. And what he means is the collapse of the idea that there is objective truth. That is, the belief that your truth may be different than my truth, and they're both equally valid. In Ratzinger's view, that simply is not the case. There is a truth with the capital T out there, and that ultimately the supreme truths about human life, human destiny are captured in Christian revelation. And so, he would see relativism as the core threat to the faith in our time. And undoubtedly this will be a pontificate that talks a great deal about the need to defend the idea of objective truth in a world that seems to have given up on it.

BROWN: John, for a lot of us, the last month or so has sort of come full circle. Today you've been a part of it. You have lots more work to do guiding us through. It's good to see you, friend. Thank you.

ALLEN: Thanks, Aaron.

BROWN: Much -- much more on the program tonight starting with the first decision every new pope makes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Benedict XVI.

ALLEN: By what name do you wish to be known? And it's actually quite interesting because that's first window we might have into the kind of pontificate he wishes to have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN (voice-over): Every pope chooses a new name but what does the choice say about the pope?

Also tonight a hometown reacts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I'm happy. We have the first Bavarian pope.

BROWN: But in Bavaria where Joseph Ratzinger grew up in the shadow of Nazism, not everyone is celebrating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (through translator): At age 78, it's not good to take on such a job which challenges the entire person, and the physical and mental existence.

BROWN: That insight from the new pope's brother.

How American Catholics feel about Benedict XVI.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just hoping for somebody who's more open to people with problems, and birth control and women in the church.

BROWN: As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was known for his traditional views on the church. Will those views push Catholics in this country away? From Rome to New York and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In a moment how the naming of Cardinal Ratzinger is being received among Catholics in this country and much more. First, though, at just about a quarter past the hour, time for other headlines of the day.

Erica Hill is in Atlanta for us tonight. Erica, good evening.

ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: Good evening to you, Aaron.

We start off with a warning from the State Department about the possibility of what it calls imminent terrorist action. The warning is for Tunisia. And the government is urging Americans there to remain vigilant and to exercise caution. The State Department says it has no information on specific targets, timing or possible method of attack.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee postponed a vote on John Bolton's nomination to be ambassador to the United Nations. That cast his nomination in doubt. Committee members say they'll take another look at allegations about Bolton's temperament, and his method of dealing with subordinates. The committee could hold another hearing and call Bolton back for more testimony.

Prosecutors in the Michael Jackson child molestation trial say they'll wrap up their case next week after nine weeks of testimony. The mother of Jackson's accuser concluded her testimony today under cross examination. She denied she solicited money from celebrities for her son's cancer treatment.

Congress gave final approval to a bill today that will help parents skip or mute sections of movies that contain foul language, violence or nudity. The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act insures makers of DVD players and other devices that filters they install won't violate the copyrights laws. The bill also makes it a federal crime to pirate moves by recording them in theaters and to distribute or a movie or a song before it's commercial release. And 25 years in making, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum opened today. President Bush was in Springfield, Illinois, for the dedication with the first lady. The 145 million dollar museum houses a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, as well as a handwritten version of the Gettysburg Address. A couple of things to check out may be on your summer vacation.

And that's the latest from Headline News.

Aaron, back to you.

BROWN: Erica, thank you very much.

On we go. He awoke today as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he goes to sleep tonight as Pope Benedict XVI. One measure of how much life can change in a day. Every pope chooses a new name, and every choice provides an opportunity to speculate. In this case, why Benedict?

here's Rudi Bakhtiar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We heard something in today's announcement that we probably won't hear much of in the future, the new pope called by his Christian name. Now, Joseph Ratzinger has a new name, one he chose for himself before he stepped onto the balcony, Pope Benedict XVI. Like everything else involved in selecting a new pontiff, selecting a new name is also steeped in tradition.

ALLEN: By what name do you wish to be known? And it's actually quite interesting because that's the first window we might have into the kind of pontificate that he wishes to have.

BAKHTIAR: So, maybe something of the measure of the man can be taken by knowing his namesake. Pope Benedict XV reigned during the dark days of World War I. A war remember for unspeakable death and destruction. The pope favored neutrality, but condemned the war's atrocities. But this pope may have been thinking back to other Benedicts.

FATHER JOSEPH KOTERSKI, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: I suspect that what he's doing is thinking all the way back to St. Benedict, who was a 6th century individual. Who is the founder of Western Monasticism, that is the beginning of monasteries in Europe.

BAKHTIAR: There have now been 16 popes named Benedict, but it's not the most popular papal name. That would be John. There were 23 of those. Benedict and Gregory are now tied for second place, followed by Clement, Innocent and Leo. And there were more interesting papal names as well, like Hilarius in 461, Telesphorus in 125, or Lando in 913, the last original papal name. But the tradition of the popes picking their own names dates back to 533 when a pope named Mercurius changed his name to John, John II, to be exact, because he was named for the god Mercury and thought a pope shouldn't have a pagan name. Since then, it's been about pontiffs picking the names of predecessors they admire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: John Paul I was brilliant when he chose that particular name, wanting to suggest both the newness and the continuity. And then John Paul II had taken that same name, trying to emphasize that he stood for precisely the same project, for the revitalization for the church, and yet for the fact that it had to be in continuity with what the church has always been.

BAKHTIAR: One name we probably won't see again, that of the original pope, Peter.

ALLEN: Peter, obviously, was the first pope in the line. He was the leader of the church chosen personally by Christ himself, and I think there's a sense and always has been that he is irreplaceable and unrepeatable. Therefore, not only would it be in poor taste, but it would be seen as somewhat arrogant for another pope to take that name.

BAKHTIAR: Rudi Bakhtiar, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Delia Gallagher, CNN Vatican analysis, and she is back with us tonight, after a long day.

Everyone's speculating on what this pontificate might be like, so go ahead and weigh in. Do you think this pope will be out there as John Paul was out there? Will he be an evangelical pope trying to convert people? Or will he take care of business at the Vatican?

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: Well, you know, Aaron, Cardinal Ratzinger, from what we've been able to see of him here at the Vatican is an intellectual-type man. He doesn't have the same sort of immediate charisma of Pope John Paul II. We can expect a pontificate which is more reserved than the one we've just gone through.

But that doesn't mean that he won't be out in the public traveling, certainly, because he realizes that that is now a legacy of Pope John Paul II and something which will be interesting to see is how he himself will have to change. He'll have to adapt to this new role as pope. He's no longer just the doctrinal authority. He has to embrace the entire world and deal with all the different problems throughout the world. So, I think following on your story about what's in a name, St. Benedict, of course, was also the man who sort of saved Christianity in Europe. And I think that that's certainly foremost in Cardinal Ratzinger's mind, this idea of kind of coming back to basics in Catholicism, and in that sense, saving Catholicism from all of these things that he's talked about in his homilies in the last week, relativism and modernism and secularism. That's certainly going to be one of his top issues in addition to as you say, organizing, reorganizing, the internal structure here at the Vatican.

BROWN: Let's talk about a couple of those things, actually. Popes these days don't have armies to force people to believe. He has to do it on the weight of his argument. Europe has become very secular. Italy is very secular in many respects. So how does he do that? How will he go about that?

GALLAGHER: Well, I think his argument there is quite simple. He has said it before. He thinks that Catholicism needs to come back to its central core beliefs and to maintain those beliefs very firmly, and that that in itself, the truth of those beliefs, he thinks will draw people to it. He doesn't believe that it needs to water itself down, as we say, in order to meet modern culture.

On the contrary, he thinks it needs to tighten up and just be simple and true to the tradition since Jesus' time that Catholicism has maintained. And this is something that we have to keep in mind that a pope comes in and he has to carry on the tradition of the church. So, he can lead it in new directions. He can make certain changes in teaching. But Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, is not one of those who believes in changing according to the waves of the modern world. He said it, it's a boat in a modern ocean. And he wants to keep it strong.

BROWN: You were asked earlier if you agreed with the idea that this is a transitional pope, and it seemed to me, you reacted to that as perhaps an oversimplification of what the elevation of this 78- year-old man actually will mean.

GALLAGHER: Well, exactly, Aaron. I think that we have to keep in mind that at least 77 of the College of Cardinals voted for this man, and I don't think that they voted for him just to kind of keep things in place until they can get a younger candidate. Certainly there are many good, qualified, younger candidates that might come from areas outside Europe in another papacy, but I think the vote for Cardinal Ratzinger tonight was a definite vote for a continued legacy of John Paul II, but also a vote for the man himself, and a vote for the strength of what they recognize in his ability to tell the story of the Catholic Church.

BROWN: Delia, good to talk to you. Thank you.

GALLAGHER: Thanks, Aaron.

BROWN: Delia Gallagher at the Vatican.

Still ahead on the program tonight, American Catholics, how they feel about their pope. And Germans, on a native son now heading the church. He's loved by many in Germany, not by all. No one is, of course. Take a break, around the world. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: He's a man of great wisdom and knowledge. He's a man who serves the lord. We remember well his sermon at the pope's funeral in Rome, how his words touched our hearts and the hearts of millions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: We touched on it a bit earlier tonight, this pope, if you will, has a record. All popes do. This one, like the last one, has shown a strong preference for faith and purity over diversity of thought. Even he has said, if it means a smaller church over time, even though it may complicate what is already a complex relationship.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): American Catholics have long lived in two worlds when it comes to the man who sits on the throne of St. Peter. They have respected, even loved the man, and they have to a great extent, ignored parts of Catholic doctrine. And that seems unlikely to change with this new pope.

CHUCK BRADY, NEW JERSEY: I was just hoping for somebody who is more open to people with problems, and birth control, and, you know, women in the church, and you know, the last pope wasn't that way.

BROWN: Predicting what a new pope will do or become is a fool's errand. But as Americans looked at his past, his sometimes dismissive view of the sex abuse scandal, his traditional view on issues of birth control, celibacy and the like, there was a sense of disappointment in some.

TAMARA HALLISEY, CATHOLIC: I think it will affect me the way it's affected me in the past, which is to take what I can from my Catholicism and apply it to my life, and basically reject the rest and go against what the official teachings of the church.

BROWN: And what of some other issues, the marriage of priests, for instance?

DR. JOSEPH KOTERSKI, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: Whether married men would ever be ordained? The Orthodox Church does allow it. There are parts of the Catholic Church where this has been the case. In general, though, it is a disciplinary question on which I don't see him making a change, but on which he could make a change if he wished.

BROWN: But the traditionalist new pope is not likely to do that. He will be like his predecessor, it seems, on the conservative wing of a long historical ideological debate.

GREG TOBIN, AUTHOR, "HOLY FATHER": I think the ongoing debate between what we call liberals and conservatives within the Catholic Church will only be intensified by this choice. It is clearly meant to be a transitional period, because of his age. So the questions that have arisen and that John Paul II really attempted to address have not gone away.

BROWN: So for some today was a day of concern. But to American Catholic leaders, it was also a day of great joy.

BISHOP WILLIAM SKYLSTAD, CHAIRMAN, U.S. CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS: I have found him to be a man of great humanity, keen intellect, and a good listener with a fine sense of humor. His extensive experience in church leadership is combined with a profound academic background. His intellectual curiosity is wide ranging. He has a genuine grasp of the theological and social issues which we have faced -- which have faced the church for the last two centuries. He's a scholar as well as a committed churchman.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A look from here. Over the last few hours, CNN, "USA Today" and Gallup conducted a poll of American Catholics to measure their initial feelings about the new pope. When asked which they're more likely to follow concerning difficult moral questions, 74 percent say they will follow their own conscience. Only 20 percent say they will follow the pope's teachings.

The gap is not as wide when it comes to birth control; 56 percent said they're bothered by the pope's position banning Catholics from using birth control, but 43 percent said they are not bothered by the ban. Those numbers might surprise some people, I think.

And in what would encourage the Vatican, 61 percent said they believe Pope Benedict will unite the church. Only 19 percent said he would divide it.

In Germany today, many felt a sudden burst of pride. A native son chosen to lead the church. But others expressed more mixed emotion, including Pope Benedict's brother. In Munich for us tonight, CNN's Chris Burns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In his native Bavaria, surprise and jubilation by his supporters. In Munich, where Joseph Ratzinger, the son of a policeman studied theology, then became archbishop and cardinal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I'm happy. We have the first Bavarian pope.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): To be honest, I didn't expect Ratzinger to be elected to be the next pope.

BURNS: Though even in Germany's conservative Catholic stronghold, criticism of the new pontiff, long dubbed God's Rottweiler, who was the Vatican's chief watchdog for doctrine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It is catastrophic, because this man is far too conservative. With his views, I mean, this is a bad thing for the Catholic Church.

BURNS: A recent poll indicates Germans are split over the man now called Pope Benedict XVI. More than one-third oppose him; less than a third support him. Nevertheless, a leftist chancellor expresses pride.

GERHARD SCHROEDER, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): The new pope, Benedict XVI, is German. It's a great honor for the whole country.

BURNS: A key test for the pontiff will come here in Cologne this summer, during the church's European youth jamboree.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I think it is great, really great. I'm already looking forward to World Youth Day. I think this will be the first big challenge, and we'll see whether he will continue to be that conservative. I don't think so.

BURNS: Back in the Alpine foothills of Bavaria, where the pope still has a home, his brother expresses some reservations about the new position.

GEORGE RATZINGER, BROTHER OF POPE BENEDICT XVI (through translator): At age 78, it's not good to take on such a job which challenges the entire person and the physical and mental existence. At an age when you approach 80, it's no longer guaranteed that one is able to work and get up the next day.

BURNS: Reservations his brother obviously paid no attention to.

Chris Burns, CNN, Munich, Germany.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Ahead on the program tonight, photos tell the story, from the faces of the flock around the world, who look at a new pope for leadership, to the problems that Pope Benedict must confront in the farthest corners of the world.

We'll take a break first from New York. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: St. Peter's, coming up on a new day, Wednesday morning there. It's quite pretty, isn't it?

Simple is not a word that often springs to mind when describing the state of Catholicism today. There is no one single picture of the church. So here now, many pictures. Still photographs. And NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The word "Catholic" means universal. And the Roman Catholic Church is very nearly that. There are more than one billion Catholics around the world. A widely scattered, profoundly diverse flock awaits the leadership of the newly named pope.

Fewer than one-third of the faithful are in the traditional, now waning Catholic strongholds of old Europe. The greatest number, four of every 10 Catholics, are in Latin America. Brazil, home to the largest population of baptized Roman Catholics in the world, as many as 150 million. Central America. Mexico. Latin American Catholics have not always felt they had a voice in Rome equal to their number. That is a challenge the new pope must address, as is the growing attraction of Pentecostal and evangelical churches in the region.

The new pope will face different challenges in Africa, which has more than doubled its numbers of baptized Catholics in the past 20 years, to 140 million. Many local African dioceses are wondering, how will Rome under the new pope respond to a critical shortage of priests? Might there be new roles for lay people? How will the Vatican respond to the devastation of AIDS? Might there be new discussions about condom use to prevent disease?

And how will the church, a voice for the poor since Christ's time, address the continent's everlasting poverty, oppression?

Dealing with repression will be a challenge for the church in China, where as many as eight million Catholics worship, many underground.

China and India are both emerging world powers where the Vatican will have to work to increase its influence, its standing.

The Vatican will need to work just as hard in the many parts of the world where Catholics coexist uneasily with growing numbers of Muslims. Will the new pope be able to bridge the divide between Christianity and Islam the way John Paul II did between Christianity and Judaism?

That may prove easier than bridging the divide between the spiritual and the material in the wealthiest nations, especially the United States, hallowing a secular age to bring back to the fold the millions of Catholics, especially younger ones, who see the church as less than relevant, bring back those wounded by the priest sex abuse scandal, bring back those who disagree with the church on issues of abortion, homosexuality, the role of women in the church.

One billion Roman Catholics, half the world's Christians, now look to Pope Benedict XVI for leadership, guidance and what his chosen name suggests -- benediction, blessing.

Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Ahead on the program, we'll hear from three people with strong opinions on the choice of a new pope. We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In a moment, three different views on the new pope, but first at about a quarter to the hour, time to look at some of the other news of the day. Erica Hill in Atlanta again. Erica, thank you.

HILL: Hello again, Aaron.

Screening in America's airports doesn't appear to be getting any better. The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general reports federal screeners are hard-working, but the results of recent security tests are not much improved from two years ago. Internal investigators were able to smuggle knives, guns and fake bombs onto planes at a number of U.S. airports.

The only person charged in the United States in connection with the September 11th attacks is now offering to plead guilty. According to sources, Zacarias Moussaoui has told prosecutors, as well as the judge presiding over the case, that he's willing to enter a guilty plea. The judge will meet with Moussaoui this week to discuss his intentions and to determine whether he is mentally competent to enter a plea.

Being obese apparently not as dangerous to one's health as previously thought. New calculations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention place it at number seven on a list of preventable causes of death in the United States, not second, as the CDC reported earlier this year. The new study finds people who are modestly overweight actually have a lower risk of death than people of normal weight.

And that's the latest from HEADLINE NEWS at this hour. Aaron, back to you.

BROWN: Erica, thank you.

Now, three different views of the decision made by the College of Cardinals today. We're joined from Washington by Monsignor William Kerr, the executive director of the Pope John Paul II cultural center. Here in New York, William Donohue, the president of the Catholic League. And Mary Alice Williams, who has covered the papacy in the past for CNN and NBC, and now for CBS Radio. We're glad to see you all.

Monsignor, we'll start with you. We talked late last week about this. Is this the sort of choice you wanted to see, or did you want to see something else?

MONSIGNOR WILLIAM KERR, EXEC. DIRECTOR, POPE JOHN PAUL II CULTURAL CENTER: Well, I think I was a bit surprised that we chose someone from within the Vatican itself. The pope whom we just buried was a man who reached out to the entire world. Certainly we have a European, we have a person from the Vatican. We have a very talented, a very, very well informed and well educated man. A person who has worked with orthodoxy, certainly kept the church focused these last 23 years. I was surprised, but I know he will do well, and I believe firmly the Holy Spirit has guided the cardinals in their choice of this man to be pope.

BROWN: Let me draw the others in.

Mr. Donohue, I assume you feel good about the choice. One of the things that I thought was interesting that was said earlier was this idea that, look, the pope should say, this is who we are, this is what we believe, and all of you who believe that, come with us. And not worry so much about what others believe or don't believe. Is that how you see it?

WILLIAM DONOHUE, PRESIDENT, CATHOLIC LEAGUE: As a matter of fact, I do. When he was Cardinal Ratzinger, he said that maybe a smaller church would be a better church. I happen to agree with that.

I don't believe that you can have a tent that becomes too big, because it tends to collapse in the center. That is to say, there have to be ordinates. There have to be parameters. And what he's trying to say is that there are absolutes in the Catholic Church. Women -- trafficking in women and children is wrong for everybody at all times. Slavery, genocide, prostitution, torture. And it's not a matter of different strokes for different folks. I like that.

BROWN: Respectfully, those are the easy ones. We can all be against slavery, slam dunk.

DONOHUE: OK.

BROWN: The problems, Ms. Williams, are in some of the less obvious or the less slam dunk ones.

MARY ALICE WILLIAMS, CBS RADIO: In more nuanced areas.

BROWN: Birth control, and celibacy...

WILLIAMS: That's right.

BROWN: ... and marriage and the like.

WILLIAMS: I think there are many Catholics in America who wanted a more conciliatory person. And this -- this cardinal, now pope, has a long track record of writing. So we know what he stands for. As a matter of fact, yesterday, in his homily, he spoke of the evils of relativism, liberalism and feminism. A clear signal. And not one that many American Catholics wanted to see, because there is pain in this church. It is a fractious church. It has listened to some of his doctrinal changes and wondered if they're being listened to at all.

BROWN: I'm always a little bit nervous when people say that's not what American Catholics want to hear. Because I actually think Mr. Donohue, for example, would represent an American Catholic and he's perfectly happy. And my point here is not that you're wrong, because you may very well be right, it's that Catholicism in America is a lot of different things. It's conservative and it's more moderate, and trying to find someone to shepherd all of that, Mr. Donohue, is difficult stuff.

DONOHUE: It is. But I think he has the ability to do it. I mean, this is a man who certainly is well schooled. He's a great intellectual. I think he will reach out. You know, people have been surprised before. We saw Richard Nixon, the anti-communist, who reached out to China, right? How do we know that this pope, Pope Benedict, may not surprise some people and put some things on the table that might even upset a few orthodox Catholics?

BROWN: Do you want him to, by the way?

DONOHUE: You know what, if that's what the Holy Spirit wants, I'm all in favor of it. And you know, you'd be more likely to get people like me to listen to him, as opposed to a leftist who I'm going to hold as being somewhat suspect to begin with. So, if he wants to move the church in a different direction, I'm going to listen to him.

BROWN: Let me go to the monsignor for a second. Is there -- we talked about this last Friday, in fact, that people become pope. They're elected, they assume a name, but something they grow into. Do you have any sense of -- that he will become something we don't see on the page right now?

KERR: Well, Aaron, I do. I think once a person puts on the papal cassock and stands before the world as the shepherd, I think the person is transformed. I don't think there's any sense that the person continues to be precisely what he was previously. So, I do believe that this man will grow into this particular office. I think that he has all of the capabilities of being a great leader. I was surprised that the cardinals chose him, but then, you know, I've been surprised many times before. And the leaders have turned out to be wonderful. I think this is a very talented and very gifted person. And I look forward to his leading the church. And certainly I look forward to working with him.

BROWN: Let me give Mary Alice the last word here.

WILLIAMS: Remember that the church is not the pope or the bishops, it's the community of the faithful. It's everybody in the noisy, busy, fractious lot who cares about it. And there is a huge church here in America that operates outside the pews. Nuns who will never be able to serve as priests, as far as we know, who are performing priestly functions. Faithful who are out there in the world doing things, good works as Catholics do, without being in the pews.

BROWN: Do you agree with that?

DONOHUE: Well, certainly, but I have to believe that people have to understand that this pope is going to do exactly what the previous popes have done with regard to women priests, it's not likely to happen. It doesn't mean that women are second class citizens and can't have a prominent role in the Catholic Church. I think, that's a dissident voice.

BROWN: We'll have a new pope and a new conversation. We'll just keep it going for months, and hopefully for years to come. It's nice to see you all. Thank you. Morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: OK, very quickly tonight, morning papers. Just saw something amusing. Anyway, translated from the Italian -- the Vatican's newspaper, "We have a pope, Joseph Ratzinger -- Benedict XVI." I guess you all understood that in Italian or is that Latin. That's Latin I think. Yikes.

"The Washington Times," "Cardinals Elect Ratzinger Pope."

And my favor headline today, "New Pontiff Loyal to Church Theology." I would hope so.

"Boston Herald," a little straight ahead here. "Catholics welcome Pope Benedict XVI. Papa!" That's a nice picture of him, by the way.

The "Dallas Morning News," everybody leads with the pope today. "An Act of Tradition" is the "Dallas Morning News" lead.

Down here if you will, "Government Overstated Deaths Tied to Obesity." Go ahead and have another Twinkie or two. Have a diet soda. Don't -- no, have a regular soda. It won't hurt you. It is good for you, actually, it turns out.

"A Simple Humble Worker," "Richmond Times-Dispatch" lead. I like that headline.

We'll end with the "Chicago Sun-Times." Same picture blown up a bit. "Benedict XVI" is the headline in the "Sun-Times". The weather tomorrow in Chicago, new pope or not, chill out.

We'll wrap it up in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Good to have you with us tonight, we're in L.A. for the rest of the week beginning tomorrow. I hope you'll join us 10:00 Eastern time. Until then good night for all of us.

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