In an interview with the Austrian Catholic Kathpress agency, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, archbishop of Vienna, expressed his joy in the election of Benedict XVI. According to the archbishop, the choice of the name indicates “in itself his programme in its fundamental principles, both in consideration of his predecessor Benedict XV (during the First World War) and of St. Benedict, “one of the patrons of Europe and founder of Western monasticism”. Reminiscing about his own personal experience in meetings with Cardinal Ratzinger, the archbishop of Vienna stressed his capacity to be a “great listener”, with a “certain timidity that is sometimes misunderstood as detachment. But this reserve is born, on the contrary, from a profound respect for and deference to the other person”. Schönborn then said that the Conclave had represented a “great experience of the community and universal union of the Church”, demonstrated also by the rapidity with which it had come to a decision. The cardinal lastly recalled that Ratzinger was John Paul II’s closest adviser: “He shared with him his great visions. John Paul II had great trust in him that went far beyond the purely professional sphere. Naturally each person is different. And Benedict XVI he concluded has ‘his own’ temperament. But he is also something else: one of the last great living witnesses of the Council in which he participated”.
