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VATICAN CITY, APR 20, 2005 (VIS) - Following is the complete text of the first message of Pope Benedict XVI which he delivered in Latin at the end of this morning's Mass with the members of the College of Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected as the 264th successor to St. Peter in early evening yesterday. "Grace and peace in abundance to all of you! In my soul there are two contrasting sentiments in these hours. On the one hand, a sense of inadequacy and human turmoil for the responsibility entrusted to me yesterday as the...

First Mass by the new Pope in Sistine Chapel. Procession is going in now. The Pope is using Pope John Paul II's staff.

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 18, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Personal and community prayer, ballots and a retreatlike atmosphere are the characteristics of the conclave that 115 cardinal electors are holding to elect a new pope. Joaquín Navarro Valls, director of the Vatican press office, confirmed that the cardinals moved into the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the Vatican guesthouse, on Sunday afternoon and dined together in the evening. They will reside in this House for the duration of the election. This afternoon they processed to the Sistine Chapel, where the voting will take place. By the authority of the cardinal chamberlain and with the outside...

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 17, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Here is the last installment of biographical sketches of the cardinals who are scheduled to participate in the conclave to elect a new pope. The conclave begins Monday. * * * Jean-Louis Tauran, 62 Archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church Jean-Louis Tauran was born April 5, 1943, in Bordeaux, France. He was ordained a priest Sept. 20, 1969. He holds licentiates in philosophy and theology and a degree in canon law. He served as parochial vicar in Bordeaux. In March 1975 he entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See and was...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Roman Catholic cardinals started to move into sequestered lodgings Sunday ahead of a momentousconclave to elect the successor to Pope John Paul II. The 115 eligible cardinals will enter the secretive conclave in the Sistine Chapel Monday with no clear favorite to take over the reins of the 1.1 billion-member Church. Some of the red-hatted "princes of the church" held publicMasses around a rainswept Rome Sunday, refusing to speculate on the vote and underlining the spiritual nature of their quest. "People think that we are going to vote like in an election. But this is something...

ROME, APRIL 15, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The 6,000 journalists, photographers and television cameramen who arrived in Rome to follow John Paul II's funeral and the start of the conclave, are all looking for the same thing: news. The enormous interest the world has to know how the cardinals are preparing for the election of the new pope is running up against the tight control of information on the part of the Vatican. Correspondents and special envoys walk up and down the two halls of the Vatican press office and around St. Peter's Square looking for something, anything. The cardinals are obliged...

Interview With Belgian Bishop André-Mutien Léonard BRUSSELS, Belgium, APRIL 15, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The legacy of John Paul II is not something to look back upon, but to use as a guide and inspiration for the future, says the bishop of Namur, Belgium. Bishop André-Mutien Léonard, philosophy professor the Catholic University of Leuven and member of the International Theological Commission, reflects in this interview with ZENIT on the person of John Paul II, and what expectations Catholics should have now with respect to the conclave. The bishop has dedicated most of his ministry to young people, and in 1999, he was...

VATICAN CITY (AP) _ Workers scaled the roof of the Sistine Chapel on Friday and attached the chimney pipe that will bellow white smoke to alert the world that a new pope has been elected, as the Vatican made final preparations for next week's conclave. Attached by a safety clip and cable, a worker climbed down the tiled roof and uncapped a small top that had covered the chimney. He replaced it with a tall, thin pipe fed to him by another man in dress pants and a tie who was standing in an opening in the chapel's sloped roof....