http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=0J1NMOAFH2LVVQFIQMFCM5WAVCBQYJVC?xml=/news/2005/04/22/wpope22.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/04/22/ixworld.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=17118

Pope may have received the most votes ever
By Bruce Johnston in Rome
(Filed: 22/04/2005)

Pope Benedict swept to victory in this week's Vatican conclave, winning the 
election by a landslide and receiving probably the most votes of any papal 
race in history, it was disclosed yesterday.

Pope Benedict XVI
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who has taken the name of Pope Benedict XVI, was 
favoured by an overwhelming number of his fellow "Princes of the Church", 
said reports.
The support for the German-born Cardinal was likely to have been no less 
than 90 and possibly 107 of the maximum 115 votes minus the winning 
candidate.
If the higher figure were true, the new Pope achieved a backing even more 
overwhelming than his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.
According to one report, however, in the first ballot the conservative 
Cardinal Ratzinger trailed the liberal standard-bearer, Cardinal Carlo Maria 
Martini.
Only when the latter and other candidates withdrew did Pope Benedict win in 
the fourth ballot, making his election one of the two fastest in more than a 
century.
In interviews Cardinals suggested that the result was a landslide. Obeying 
oaths not to divulge the secrets of the conclave under pain of 
excommunication, they did not reveal too many details.
"We all felt that he was our brother with superior qualities," said Cardinal 
Christoph Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna.
The political manoeuvring before his victory seemed to gainsay the usual 
claims of Cardinals that the Holy Spirit alone had determined their choice 
of Benedict XVI.
Other cardinals yesterday sought to depict the human side of the new Pope, 
notwithstanding his austere image as the previous Pope's intransigent 
enforcer of orthodoxy.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said the Pope's image as a German "panzerkardinal" 
was unfair. "He is human and he will convince you," he said. "He is both a 
man of science and of faith. He possesses a great sense of humanity, he 
loves nature and music."
The same churchman said that Cardinal Ratzinger was a cat lover. "Every time 
he met a cat, he would talk to it, sometimes for a long time," said Cardinal 
Bertone. "The cat would follow him. Once about 10 cats followed him into the 
Vatican and one of the Swiss Guards intervened, saying 'Look, your eminence, 
the cats are invading the Holy See'."
Cardinal Achille Silvestrini said: "Pope Benedict XVI will not be 
Ratzinger.'' The election of a Pope "completely transforms a man''. As the 
Vatican began preparations for his investiture as Bishop of Rome in a Mass 
at St Peter's on Sunday, with 500,000 pilgrims and 150 foreign delegations 
expected to attend, the new Pope was already at work yesterday. He 
reconfirmed the same heads of the Curia, or Vatican civil service, as those 
in place when Pope John Paul II died on April 2. Among them was the 
secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
It was not clear, however, who would take over the Vatican's key doctrinal 
authority, which had been run by Cardinal Ratzinger. Belgian reports said 
his successor could be Mgr André Mutien Leonard, 64, Bishop of Namur. 


-- 
Cheers,

Gabe Menezes.
London, England

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