Some liberal Catholics and interest groups blasted the choice as a lost opportunity to move the church in a less doctrinaire direction since the new pope, a conservative German who was close to the late Pope John Paul II, has long held hard-line positions on many divisive issues, including the ordination of women, birth control and homosexuality.
With no less fervor, many conservative Catholics praised Pope Benedict XVI as a strong leader whom they expect will shore up the church's teachings and serve as a formidable steward of traditional values. Some even spoke hopefully of the new pope once again requiring that Latin be spoken at Mass.
Perhaps the only point not in contention was that at 78, Pope Benedict XVI is likely to have a much shorter pontificate than John Paul II, who was 58 when he was selected in 1978, and therefore less opportunity to leave a lasting imprint.
''Who could follow an act like that?'' said Valerie Lienau, of Moraga, Calif., who was among the 100 or so people who celebrated a thanksgiving Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco, the seat of the archdiocese here. ''This gives people a chance to catch their breath and absorb the legacy of Pope John Paul II. The important thing is who will be the pope after Cardinal Ratzinger.''
Lienau, a self-described orthodox Catholic, who said she was overjoyed at the selection, drove 25 miles to San Francisco to mark the occasion in the grandeur of the hilltop cathedral. But she got a cold dose of reality when she excitedly phoned her son, who is gay. The response was a loud groan.
''I'm not blind to the challenges,'' Lienau said. ''I'm very sympathetic to the disappointment being felt.''
R. Scott Appleby, a historian of American Catholicism at Notre Dame University, said many Catholics were dismayed, stunned and depressed at the selection of Ratzinger.
''This is their worst nightmare come true,'' said Appleby, who predicted the selection could lead to a ''winnowing'' of the American church.
''There is an idea associated with Cardinal Ratzinger and some American cardinals and bishops,'' Appleby said, ''that if we face a choice as Catholics between a pure, doctrinally orthodox church on the one hand and the current situation, which as they see it, is a wide range of practice and belief and a moral laxity, they would choose a smaller, purer, more doctrinally orthodox church.''
Others were more cautious about making predictions.
Monsignor Royale Vadakin, the vicar-general of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation's largest, said it was dangerous to assume Pope Benedict XVI would act the same as Cardinal Ratzinger. He said many popes had moved the church in surprising directions, and that Ratzinger's rigid views on church teachings might yield when confronted with the wider portfolio of the papacy.
