Pope Benedict XVI: The Conquest of Rome

The stealth campaign for Ratzinger began 18 months ago. An inside look at how he won

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    In the first week of January 2005, hints that Ratzinger was a front runner hit the press. "The Ratzinger solution is definitely on," TIME quoted a well-placed Vatican insider. "There was a stigma. He rises above that now." But even then, many others found the idea unbelievable. "I thought the window was closing because of his age," says a Vatican official. If John Paul had lived two more years, says the official, Ratzinger "would have disappeared from the horizon."

    In February, John Paul was admitted to the hospital. And as the church focused once again on potential successors, something close to a papal campaign debate took place. Ratzinger and Tettamanzi attended a funeral in Milan for the founder of Communion and Liberation, a powerful conservative Catholic lay movement. Without notes, Ratzinger delivered an inspiring eulogy and received enthusiastic applause. Tettamanzi, who presided over the service as the local Cardinal, read his remarks and, according to a supporter of the Milanese prelate, left the crowd cold.

    For Ratzinger, it was a critical time to appear strong and confident--and he got several opportunities to bolster such an image. For Good Friday, with John Paul near death, Ratzinger wrote the text for the closely watched reading of the Stations of the Cross. His daring language on the need to cleanse the church of "filth"--an apparent reference to the sex-abuse scandals plaguing the priesthood--startled some but was applauded by many looking for strength as John Paul's ebbed. Without having to claim as much, Ratzinger appeared to be the man in charge.

    When the Cardinals arrived from around the world for John Paul's funeral, they naturally turned to the Cardinals of the Curia for advice and intelligence on who should replace him. "It's a fact that most Cardinals don't know most other Cardinals--not well, anyway, and not personally," says a priest close to Ratzinger. "The way they get to know each other is in Rome. And how do they get to know each other? They tend to ask the Curia Cardinals." And the person everyone wanted to meet was Ratzinger.

    He made himself available to share his views. "My voice is tired because I've been talking all week," Ratzinger said on April 16, the Saturday before the conclave, as he stopped by his office so his staff could celebrate his 78th birthday. (They sang Ave Maria in rondo to mark the anniversary.) "His voice was almost gone," said Monsignor Gerald Cadieres, a Venezuelan who worked for him. For days, Ratzinger had been impressing visiting Cardinals by speaking in German, French, English, Italian and Spanish. It was like nonstop town-hall meetings in a U.S. political campaign--with this caveat: no one is allowed to campaign. One observer describes the pro-Ratzinger maneuvers not as politics but as attempts to change the "mood" of the conclave.

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