Well, it’s official. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has become Pope Benedict XVI. He was elected by the cardinals of the Vatican conclave Tuesday to be the next leader of 1.1 billion Roman Catholics. But I worry he may be too conservative to lead one of the world’s largest religions.

I’m not the only one to think this.

“It seems that he is too conservative. Hopefully the Holy Spirit can help him change. We expected a person like John Paul. Somebody who could give the Church alternatives … open the Church to the world, look more at reality,” Jurandir Arauj, of the National Conference of Bishops Afro-Brazilian Section, said to Reuters Tuesday.

Some of the new pope’s past views are too conservative for the reality of the modern world. For example, Benedict condemns the use of contraception-including condoms-which is essential to curb the large AIDS epidemic in Africa. The BBC reported in 2001 that 28.1 million Africans are living with AIDS. Realistically, people aren’t going to stop having sex. The new pope must understand that telling African Catholics not to use condoms could result in people dying.

He’s also been quoted in the National Catholic Reporter in 1986 as saying of homosexuality, “it is a more or less strong tendency ordered to an intrinsic moral evil, and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder…” Benedict, I’m getting hoarse saying this: Let’s all leave the gay folks alone. Even if they marry, they’re not bothering anyone. If you need proof, read my last column. People with real “objective disorders” are committing “moral evils” like murder and ethnic cleansing every day. If society needs something to focus on, how about that whole priest sexual abuse scandal thing? According to the BBC, a February 2004 church report said more than 4,000 American Catholic priests have been accused of sexual abuse within the last 50 years. This should be a higher priority for the church than sex between two consentual adults.

Benedict is also against the ordination of female priests. This is as much discrimination as paying women less for the same job as a man. It is particularly surprising for a religion which venerates Mary, Jesus’ mother, so much that it has a prayer for her that starts, “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee…” If Mary can receive the Lord’s grace, certainly other women can as well. Unless the Catholic Church can prove that women cannot teach and inspire faith as well as men, women should be allowed to be priests.

While still cardinal, Benedict said recently, “We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.” In a way, he’s right. There are moral absolutes that aren’t relative or open to question. If people contract AIDS because of silly prejudices against condoms, that’s an absolute wrong. Calling someone’s sexual orientation evil is wrong. Denying half the human race the right to be a spiritual leader in a church is wrong. As pontiff, Benedict can send a powerful moral message by righting these wrongs.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.