XVI

It looks like "God's Rottweiler" has a new nickname: "his holiness." Cardinal Joseph Alois Ratzinger will be installed as Pope Benedict XVI this coming Sunday. As with the outcome of our recent presidential election, I can claim neither surprise nor pleasure, although I do take satisfaction in the knowledge that the new pope, regardless of his stance on homosexuality, probably won't be starting any wars. In fact, if we are to assume that Cardinal Ratzinger chose his papal name based upon the career of the most recent Benedict (the pope during the first World War) instead of the first one (about whom we know very little), we can expect a strong stance against Bush's questionable use of force.