Third Time's the Charm
If you had your money on Ratzinger, you bet the odds and you won. The "defender of the faith," as was his role under J2P2, is now the supreme pontiff: Benedict XVI. At 78, we're not likely to get the same kind of long service as his predecessor, but his ideology should provide the same, if not a greater, conservativism.

The internal prejudice against a younger man appears to me to stem from a reluctance towards change and from a lack of, shall we say, apostolic succession. 26 years, the duration of J2P2's reign, is a long time in which no one else gets to exercise any greater role than they've already achieved, there being only so much room for cardinals (despite the record number of appointments made in the last papacy), a fairly limited growth potential for diocesan appointments, and so forth. Of course, that's not the point, but every hierarchical system suffers from ambition, and Ratzinger's election appears to play to that situation. The church isn't noted for being open to experimentation, so however long Benedict XVI lasts, the next election isn't likely to offer any more change than this one does. Too bad, too, but if the scandals of the last ten to twenty years weren't enough to initiate reform, I can't imagine what will.