Pope Benedict signals no quick changes in Vatican

Pope Benedict signalled his papacy would bring no swift change in the Catholic Church yesterday as details emerged of how he swept to an overwhelming victory in a secret conclave.

Pope Benedict - a close conservative doctrinal ally of his predecessor John Paul - sounded a note of continuity on the third day of his reign, confirming top Vatican posts.

The new Pontiff, German Joseph Ratzinger, reappointed Cardinal Angelo Sodano, 77, as secretary of state, the Vatican's number two job and a position the Italian has held since 1990.

Cardinals and archbishops running other departments in the Curia, or central Vatican bureaucracy, were also reinstated.

The cardinals who elected Cardinal Ratzinger, Vatican doctrinal enforcer for 23 years, clearly wanted continuity and rejected a reformist change of course after John Paul's 26-year reign.

As Pope Benedict, 78, settled into power as head of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, interviews and leaks from conclave cardinals made clear that he had built up strong momentum even before the election began and outmanoeuvred moderate opposition. Although Cardinal Ratzinger started the conclave as favourite, many experts had said he was too divisive and too old to win.

But his election in one of the swiftest conclaves in a century suggested he decisively consolidated his position in the first three votes before winning the fourth on Tuesday.

Italian newspapers, considered to have the best inside track on events inside the secret meeting, agreed that Cardinal Ratzinger garnered well over the two thirds, or 77, votes he needed from the 115 voting cardinals. Some suggested he won more than 100.

The vote also reflected the desire by the princes of the Church for an tough and capable leader to face the challenges of the 21st century.

Rome officials said some 500,000 people were expected to arrive in the city for Benedict's inaugural Mass at St Peter's Basilica on Sunday. Three million pilgrims came to Rome after John Paul died.

Some 1,500 German-speaking volunteers from Italy's Alpine Alto Adige region, once held by Austria, will be drafted in to help the faithful from Ratzinger's home country.

Several cardinals suggested a key factor in Cardinal Ratzinger's election was his skilful administration in the period after John Paul died on April 2 and his reputation as a tough and uncompromising defender of traditional doctrine.

"Cardinal Ratzinger was a possibility right from the beginning. His was a strong presence. He was the dean of the sacred college (of cardinals), he made the address during the funeral, he delivered the homily at the (pre-conclave) Mass," said Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn.

"We all felt that he was one of our brothers with superior qualities," he told the Rome daily La Repubblica.

The cardinals were also worried that a long conclave would worsen perceptions of a divided church.

Cardinal Ratzinger's homily at a Mass immediately before the conclave began was seen by some Vatican experts as almost a stump speech that further solidified support behind him. He told cardinals they must defend traditional doctrine and reject modern trends and ideologies.

This struck a deep chord not only among the cardinal electors but with traditionalist Catholics who see Pope Benedict as the right man to defend the Church in a time of difficulty. They rejected the negative reaction to Pope Benedict's election among liberal Catholics, particularly in America, who saw him only as a doctrinal hardliner.

"The Church has found its man once again. I don't think there was anyone else in the Sistine Chapel that equalled him as a theologian, a pastor and a man of great intuition," said Spanish Bishop Cipriano Calderon Polo.

In an early potential challenge for Benedict, Spain's parliament gave initial approval on Thursday for a law legalising gay marriage - which Cardinal Ratzinger has previously condemned as eroding Europe's social identity.

Italian newspapers said that when the first conclave vote was taken on Monday evening, Cardinal Ratzinger and the moderates' standard-bearer, former Milan archbishop Carlo Maria Martini, were running almost neck-and-neck on around 40 votes.

Archbishop Martini, 78, who has a form of Parkinson's disease, was seen as a stalking horse rather than the final candidate.

But opponents of Cardinal Ratzinger, led by fellow German Cardinals Karl Lehmann and Walter Kasper, were unable to mobilise support for another moderate in time to block him on Tuesday.

At the same time, large blocks of uncommitted votes controlled by "kingmaker" figures began to move towards Cardinal Ratzinger. By Tuesday afternoon Archbishop Martini had decided to throw his support behind the German.

The election seemed to indicate that the cardinals were more immediately worried about declining faith in Europe - a particular concern of Cardinal Ratzinger - than the problems of the developing world, where two thirds of Catholics now live.