Lileks says it best, as usual

I don't have much of an opinion on the recent elevation of Cardinal Ratzinger to the office of Pope; after all, I am a Mormon. If Pope Benedict XVI is the ideological twin of John Paul II, then I think the Catholic Church is in good hands.

But I have noticed that the MainStreamMedia are tsk-tsking the idea of another conservative, traditional Pope, calling him "rigid" and an "enforcer of Church Orthodoxy". Occasional Catholic Andrew Sullivan, for one, is at his hysterical best. I don't understand how people who don't really believe in the divinity of the Catholic Church or who aren't Catholic can get so worked up over someone who, in their eyes, is just an old man leading an anachronistic institution. Lighten up, people.

On this subject, St. James of Jasperwood has the best and final word. My favorite part:

Hence I am always amazed by people who want the church to accommodate their thoughts, their new beliefs, their precarious and ingenious rationales, instead of ripping themselves from the bosom and seeking a congregation that doesn't make them feel like a heretic banging thier head on Filarete's doors. To those who want profound change, consider an outsider’s perspective: the Catholic Church is the National Review of religion. You may live long enough to see it become the Weekly Standard. In your dreams it might become the New Republic. But it’s never going to be the Nation. And if ever it does, it will have roughly the same subscriber base.

As Professor Reynolds would say, go and read the whole thing.