Germans Reserved About Their Joy Over ‘Benedikt’

VATICAN CITY — Kamps Wallburger was kneeling in a chapel near Duesseldorf last week when she heard the answer to her prayers: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had been elected the first German pope in a millennium.

“We decided within one hour to come to Rome,” she recalled Sunday, her rosy cheeks beaming for her compatriot.

But as the 50-year-old teacher joined a huge crowd here for Ratzinger’s installation as Pope Benedict XVI, Wallburger held only a tiny flag representing her small western German town of Kevelaer. She did not chant “Papst Benedikt!” or yell anything in German or carry a placard to spell out her national pride.

Like her, tens of thousands of Germans poured in from over the Alps for Sunday’s investiture Mass in St. Peter’s Square but refrained from organizing a rooting section. That is not their style.

Instead, they were as reserved as their new 78-year-old pope. They blended into the multinational multitude, joining in as Italians led the chants for “Ben-e-DET-to! Ben-e-DET-to.”

“His name sounds more beautiful in Italian,” said Munich homemaker Teresa Trauttmansdorff.

National sentiment is a new dimension of the modern papacy. In 1978, the election of the first Polish pontiff broke a 456-year Italian monopoly on the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, altering the makeup and behavior of crowds in the vast square outside St. Peter’s Basilica.

Spirited Polish pilgrims would capture large sections of the square for some papal Masses, waving their red-and-white flags, chanting in their language and often eliciting a phrase or two in Polish from Pope John Paul II.

On Sunday, it was almost impossible to tell from looking at the crowd that John Paul’s successor was German.

“There are still prejudices in the world,” explained Wallburger, a devout, vivacious Catholic. She came to Rome aware that Italians today will celebrate Liberation Day, the 60th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat here toward the end of World War II -- an era that reverberated last week with reminders of Benedict’s acknowledged membership as a boy in the Hitler Youth movement.

Wallburger said she would leave Rome hoping the election of “this holy, humble man” would help overcome those prejudices.

It is a hope that seems to unite German Catholics across a sharp divide in the church over the former Cardinal Ratzinger’s rigid defense of traditional moral teachings as John Paul’s chief doctrinal enforcer.

“It is great that we have a German pope, although I think he is too old and too conservative,” said Ina Stelzer, an 18-year-old student from Handrup. “I go abroad and feel uncomfortable to say I am German. We cannot wave our flags the way other countries do. Maybe today can be a step toward changing this.”

Italians generally welcomed the German influx, some because they hoped the new pilgrims would spend more euros than the Poles did.

“The Germans did not come to conquer this time, but to join us in welcoming a new leader of the church,” said Giuseppe Alice, a 39-year-old Roman electrician.

Eric Boursont, a Frenchman, said he welcomed the new pope not as a German but a universal figure “with the same European roots.”

On Sunday, St. Peter’s Square was a sea of flags -- the colors of the United States, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, Switzerland, Croatia, Lebanon and many other countries. The blue-and-white checkered flag of Bavaria, the pope’s home state, was far more in evidence than the red, yellow and black of Germany.

The most prominent German message was on a banner that simply read, “Bis bald in Koln,” or “See you soon in Cologne,” the site in Germany of this year’s worldwide Catholic youth festival in August. Benedict has promised to attend.

“Look around and you see it clearly: This is a universal church,” said Michael Alberts, 38, a Cologne resident who was holding one end of the 15-foot-long sign. “It is not really important that the pope is black or white, from Poland or Germany or Africa.

“We are very happy he is pope. But he has the most difficult job in the world.”

Following the charismatic John Paul will be especially hard. In his prime, the late pope addressed crowds in many tongues, often alternating among English, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German.

Although Benedict speaks several languages as well, he read his entire homily Sunday in Italian, leaving much of the crowd to guess at what he said.

“We just clapped when the Italians did,” said Peter Lewis, a retired accountant from Wales.

Everyone seemed happy with the new pope’s talk, though Catholics on both sides of the theological divide heard what they wanted to hear.

“He will keep women out of the priesthood,” said Joseph Grezer, 67, a retired mechanic from Duesseldorf.

“He will allow no experiments. Everything will remain the same, and this will be good for our church.”

“This is the beginning of his reign, so you have to wait and see before you judge him,” said Bertrand Humeau, 35, of Lyon, France. “It was his function as custodian of the faith” to be conservative.

“Now he will act as a pope. It will be different.”