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Originally posted by sugar and spice
Assuming the new pope stays true to his conservative roots, I worry about the route the church is taking. By selecting a conservative pope, the church is essentially sweeping a number of problems (condom use in Africa, the priest shortage, European Catholics becoming less and less religious, etc.) under the rug instead of addressing them. I think we're at the place where the church needs to work with its members (especially European ones) instead of against them, and a conservative pope will be less likely to do that. And in terms of relations with the rest of the world, popes in the near future will probably need to reach out to Muslim leaders the way John Paul II reached out to Jewish leaders.
Hopefully this new pope chose his name for a reason, and he does plan on working towards unification.
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I think it's important not to fall into the media created mental trap of the term "conservative" - conservative or liberal means many different things politically or theologically, outside of the NA media definition of conservative or liberal...
Further it is important to remember that all of the Cardinals are to some extent conservative - they represent, promote and defend teachings that are on the whole "conservative" (or maybe better: traditionalist).
Pope Benedict XVI has in his late career as Cardinal, became a strong proponent of some of the "core" teachings of the Church - teachings that are controversial or "problematic" for segments of the faithful... such as Brith Control. A "conservative" theologian will take the defense of life (or as JP2 termed it the "culture of life") to the philosophical and theological extension throughout society - ie. all life comes from God, and ending or preventing a life is interfering with God's design - this extension precludes the use of "artifical" birth control....
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Feel free to discuss this, the Hitler Youth  , or anything else you think might be controversial about the new pope, the direction of the church, or Catholicism in general.
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As for Benedict's membership in the Hitler Youth or the German Army... it was mandatory membership and service - service that he deserted when he got the chance... so I don't see why it is an issue.