Reaction to new pontiff tearful, enthusiastic
Local Catholics celebrate Benedict XVI’s inauguration at cathedral Mass

HAPPY MOM — Michelle Gerlach holds her year-old son during the Mass. When Gerlach heard that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had been elected pope, she cried tears of joy.

By Brian T. Olszewski, Catholic Herald Staff

MILWAUKEE — When Pope Benedict XVI’s election was announced April 19, Michelle Gerlach began to cry. But her daughters didn’t know that they were tears of joy.

“Why are you crying, Mommy?” one asked. “Habemus papam!” — a refrain the girls repeated throughout the day.

Michelle recalled that moment as she and her husband Matthew, and their three children awaited the start of the Sunday night Mass at St. John the Evangelist Cathedral. The April 24 Mass was celebrated to mark the installation of Pope Benedict XVI earlier that day.

Michelle was only 3 years old when Pope John Paul II was elected.

“I have a special love for the pope,” she said. “He’s the only pope I have ever known.” She and Matthew, members of St. Augustine, West Allis, were pleased with the selection of his successor.

“I was slightly surprised, but happily surprised,” Matthew said. “He has kind of a negative image, but I hope people will embrace him, and give him a chance.”

Michael Riegert, who was hoping that whoever was elected pope would welcome change, including more roles open to women, was not surprised by the selection.

“I thought they’d go conservative,” said the member of St. Mary, Hales Corners.

After more than 26 years of Pope John Paul II, Lori Brahm needs time.

“It’s going to take me some time to adjust,” she said of the new pope. “He brings a whole new light to the Catholic Church.”

She has one request of the Holy Father.

“I hope someday maybe he’ll make a visit to Wisconsin,” the parishioner from St. Agnes, Butler said. “It would be great. They could use Miller Park.”

Bill Raczynski, a member of Holy Assumption, West Allis, said, “I would like him to continue what Pope John Paul II had started.”

He said he was only slightly surprised by the election, referring to Cardinal Francis George’s comment that the cardinals “had heard the Holy Spirit’s voice.”

Hugh and Joan Braun, members of St. Sebastian and the Cathedral parishes, expressed pride in having a German pope, but their enthusiasm went beyond nationality.

“I’d like to see him express his deep and abiding faith, and to project that across the globe,” Hugh said.

Joan added, “He’ll work to bring all faiths together, to cooperate. His emphasis will be on faith and love.”

In his 12-minute homily, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, told the congregation the significance of the pope’s choice of Benedict as his name.

“It means to speak well, to say good things,” the archbishop explained. “It calls forth the noble, the beautiful, the most dignified, the sacred.”

Citing the life and work of St. Benedict, the archbishop said the sixth century abbot’s belief in the importance of “faith, reason, scholarship, worship, and community” is shared by the new pope.

Archbishop Dolan praised the last pope to take the name Benedict, who reigned from 1914-1922, for his “indefatigable promotion of peace,” noting that some historians believe that adoption of the pope’s peace plan could have averted World War I.

Predicting that Pope Benedict XVI will “speak out against all forms of violence,” the archbishop said, “He will be a promoter of peace and a constant apostle of justice.”

Archbishop Dolan said, “When all is said and done, it is not about Pope Benedict XVI, Pope John Paul II, me, or you. When all is said and done, it’s about Jesus — the stone rejected by the builder; the way, the truth and the life.”

Following Mass, participants were treated to Usinger’s brats and Sprecher root beer in the atrium as a band provided German music.

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