Pope.com is Spoken For

"My money's on one of these six names: Benedict XVI, Clement XV, Innocent XIV, Leo XIV, Paul VII, Pius XIII," Florida resident Rogers Cadenhead wrote in his blog, Workbench, on Monday. "I mean this literally. I registered all six of these as dot-com domain names earlier this month." The bet paid off on Tuesday when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was chosen as the next pope, and selected the name Benedict XVI -- making Cadenhead's BenedictXVI.com suddenly a much sought-after name.

When we asked Cadenhead why he took the the domain name and if he plans to profit from it, he said, "I may be a lapsed Catholic, but I haven't lapsed far enough to sell the domain to pornographers. We're talking about a pope who was known as the Vatican enforcer. I have no desire to be on the business end of Old Testament wrath." As to what he plans to do with it now: "When I considered whether to register the domain, my decision was based on the belief that if I didn't do it, the name would fall into the hands of someone even more disreputable than me."

Cadenhead's sole motivation may be a geeky interest in domain names and Catholicism, but the move to buy up pope-related URLs -- called "popesquatting" in refernce to the practice of Internet domain name speculation, cyber-squatting -- was all the rage in the days between John Paul II's death and the selection of the new pope. On Wednesday morning, numerous eBay auctions had already begun for sites like WelcomePope.com, www.PopeBenedictTheXVI.net and popebenedict.de. Internet registry services also showed that BenedictXVI.de, BenedictXVI.org, BenedictXVI.net and BenedictXVI.info have been purchased since the new pope was announced.

Cadenhead is no stranger to domain name squatting. In 1998, he bought the name Drudge.com just as Drudgereport.com, home of the controversial Drudge Report, was getting popular. He still operates a Drudge spoof site there, the Drudge Retort, which puts a liberal spin on the Drudge approach to news. And the top story on Drudge.com on Wednesday, naturally enough, is "BenedictXVI.com Registered by Fla. Man," a link to a Washington Post story on Cadenhead.

Whether or not the Vatican will actually be interested in the name is yet to be seen, but Cadenhead, who describes himself as "a baptized Catholic who gets geeked" about the pope selection process, said "I will be running any plans I have for this domain by my own Catholic doctrinal enforcer, my never-miss-a-Sunday grandmother Rita." (12:23 p.m. CET)

Bendict XVI: First Pope, Now Best-Selling Author

Now that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has officially been selected pope and taken the name Benedict XVI, he can also add another title to his name, though one with far less spiritual weight. (A great many people would happily sell their souls for it, however.) Ratzinger is now a best-selling author. Within hours of his nomination to the church's highest office, Ratzinger's many theological books and personal memoirs have suddenly become hot properties. His publisher, Ignatius Press, told the Associated Press they had been "overwhelmed" with orders.

That's hardly a surprise: Ratzinger's books, which days ago were nowhere near the list of 100 top sellers on Amazon.com (and some of which are wholly out of print), now make up almost half of the top twenty. Books like "Salt of the Earth: Christianity and the Catholic Church at the End of the Millennium" (#5) and "Introduction to Christianity" (#8) are now up there as big sellers alongside Vatican-reviled tomes like the new Harry Potter (#1 even though it hasn't been released) and Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" (#12). Ignatius Press says it plans to run another printing of some books. Meanwhile, all sorts of Ratzinger-related items have suddenly become valuable: an autographed photo of the new pope was going on eBay for $762.67 (though, of course, the signature was still under his pre-papal name). (10:37 a.m. CET)

The Other Ratzinger, Georg

As the world scrambles to learn as much as it can about the new pope, another Ratzinger is getting used to his new position as papal brother. Georg Ratzinger, Monsignor and former choirmaster at the famous Regensburg cathedral, says the news was "very shocking." Georg, who at 81 is the pope's big brother, was quoted widely earlier this month for telling the Munich paper Abendzeitung that his brother "wouldn't have a chance'' at the papacy. "There are so many candidates. And besides, I cannot imagine that one would choose a German as pope.''

When the decision did come, he told the German television station ARD, "I was shocked." Overnight, the idea has "settled somewhat," but it's still "way out of the ordinary." The brothers Ratzinger have a long history in the church together: Both were ordained on the same 1951 day, and when Georg retired as choirmaster in 1994, his baby brother delivered the sermon.