If you haven't heard (and I'd be surprised if you haven't), Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany has been elected Pope. He has taken the name Pope Benedict XVI.

To find out why he took the name "Benedict", I would recommend looking up the life of St. Benedict, as that may be a saint Ratzinger looked up to all his life. That would be my guess, anyway.

Editorial note: I think Ratzinger will be a good pope. Maybe not 'great', but not horrible either. Conservatism isn't ALWAYS a bad thing!

The other thing is, today would have been my dad's 84th birthday. I think it's only too fitting that this announcement happened on this day, and my dad is of German descent anyway.