Exactly one year has passed since the conclave of cardinals elected as Pope the first German in the last thousand years.
Former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became the head of more than a billion Roman Catholics after only two days of voting. Vatican authorities believe that 4 million faithful visited Rome on the days of the funeral of Pope John Paul II and another 4 million attended services by the new pope over the past year.
Benedict XVI introduced little that was new in the Vatican. Among the 15 new cardinals he appointed, 3 were from Asia, which testifies to special concern for that region.
The nearly 80-year-old pontiff plans a trip to Turkey, against whose accession to the EU Cardinal Ratzinger spoke on the basis of cultural and religious difference.
However, as Roman Pontiff, Benedict XVI adopted a peaceable stance toward the Islamic world and in his first year of rule showed himself to be a greater peacemaker than critics expected.