His Election

Fratelli e sorelli carissimi. Queridísimos hermanos y hermanas. Bien chers frères et soeurs. Liebe Brüdern und Schwestern. Dear brothers and sisters.

Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum.

Habemus papam.

Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum, Dominum Iosephum, Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem Ratzinger

qui sibi nomen imposuit Benedicti decimisexti.

[Dear brothers and sisters. I announce to you a great joy. We have a Pope. The Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord, Lord Joseph, Cardinal of Holy Roman Church, Ratzinger, who has taken the name Benedict XVI.]

At 6:48 p.m., the Holy Father Benedict XVI, preceded by the Cross, appeared on the loggia to greet the people and to impart the Apostolic Blessing "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and to the world). Before doing so he said in Italian:

Dear Brothers and Sisters. After the great Pope John Paul II, the Cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble laborer in the vineyard of the Lord.

The fact that the Lord knows how to work and to act even with inadequate instruments comforts me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers.

Let us move forward in the joy of the Risen Lord, confident of his unfailing help. The Lord will help us and Mary, his Most Holy Mother, will be on our side. Thank you.

The Holy Father subsequently retired from the loggia to the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he had dinner with the Cardinals, and where he spent the first night of his pontificate.

The following day, Wednesday 20 April 2005, Pope Benedict visited the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he was very cordially greeted by his former collaborators in that Dicastery. He then went to the papal apartment of the Apostolic Palace, which had remained sealed since the funeral of the former pontiff. During its renovation the Holy Father lives in the Domus Sanctae Marthae.