When the Cardinals of the Catholic Church elected Defender of the Faith Joseph Ratzinger as the new Pope, one could have been mistaken for thinking that the Church was under attack. Instead, however, it was still in mourning for the most popular Pope in living memory, and although the Church, like any living organisation, has its own share of problems, it is mainly honoured and respected all over the world.

So the reason why the Cardinals chose Ratzinger has nothing to do with a siege mentality. Nor is there any evidence that the Cardinals were signalling that the time had come for more repression and strictness: the reign of the previous Pope had not been in any way lenient or accommodating.

It is true that the Cardinals were very homogeneous: Pope John Paul II handpicked all but three for their orthodox views and their religious conservatism. They are practically all at an advanced age, the youngest being 52 or so and the oldest just short of 80. The evidence is that they chose Ratzinger because they perceived him as the most fitting person to lead the Church after John Paul II.

Joseph Ratzinger had a bad press worldwide and this was reflected in the way in which he has been greeted. One can say he was greeted more with a groan than a cheer. Enough collections have been made of quotations from his sayings, especially on hostile weblogs and websites, to make him out as being against anything and everything – from homosexuality to Mass in the vernacular, Turkey in the EU to women priests.

The role of Pope, however, is normally an educational experience, as John XXIII and even John Paul II discovered. One remembers here, although in a completely different context, the plea Pius II made when he was elected: “Forget Aeneas (his name was Aeneas and he was a Latin scholar) and learn to see the Pius.”

In what was to become his last speech as Cardinal, at Monday’s Mass just before the Conclave began, Cardinal Ratzinger had some very strong arguments to make, but also an astounding coda.

He spoke against what he called “the dictatorship of relativism”; he claimed that “sects are born every day” and that people, and Catholics, are swayed by the various =isms from Marxism to Liberalism.

It is true, and here he was echoing what has been said many times by his predecessor, that modern mankind is crying out loud for assurance and instead is being fed ideologies. It is also true that for a Christian, faith is based on Christ and the Gospels or not at all. But faith is a process, it is a struggle, it starts from doubt and engages uncertainty. Otherwise it is not faith at all but a tradition, a jacket that one puts on and takes off without a thought.

Just as was the case with John Paul II, and so too with Benedict XVI one hopes: one important factor in the way they are perceived by the people of the world is their inner faith, which far from making them lesser men, deepens and enlarges their humanity. The peoples of the world, while maybe not exactly religious themselves, want to see religious persons acting out their own faith.

In the same speech on Monday, Cardinal Ratzinger concluded with words one does not normally hear from a reactionary person: he spoke of a person needing both the heart and the mind because love (the heart) tempers the brain. He spent the better part of the speech arguing for coherence and logic, which are important in every human act, but here he was tempering the whole with an understanding that “there is more to life than logic and coherence”.

Apart from those who were influenced by the tabloids’ portrayal of the new Pope, one can say that perhaps the keenest opposition to his election came from within the Church, rather than outside it. Pope Benedict proclaimed on Wednesday that he intends to continue on the path indicated by Vatican Council II. That historic event opened up the Church to the world, forced it to stop looking inwards and to enter into dialogue with contemporary man.

One can only hope that this Pope’s pontificate will be marked with that felicitous phrase used by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini just days before the Conclave: “evolving in sweetness.” These are no times for condemnations and anathemas. Modern man coping with his traumas and upheavals, in his emptiness and anguish, needs love and

understanding far more than arrogant Nyets. Let there be clarity and coherence by all means, but dialogue can only take off if it is based on love.

This time, far more than other Conclaves, the new Pope has been condemned and disliked by sections of world opinion even before he started to act. This is a different Pope from John Paul II, personally more timid perhaps, and more cultured, less at ease with crowds and multitudes. Nor, obviously, should his being German be held against him (as being a Pole was held against John Paul II). He must be given time to shake off all the labels he has been saddled with, to be himself and grow into his role as Pope.