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Ratzinger's visibility and the pope's frailty have reawakened the question of who is in charge at the Vatican. Some observers predicted that he would be a strong candidate to succeed John Paul II. His conservatism fits with the thinking of most of the cardinal electors picked by John Paul II. But at 77, Ratzinger is the oldest of the so-called papabili, cardinals frequently mentioned as papal candidates.

''In spite of his age, Ratzinger has recently jumped to the top of the list of candidates," wrote one Vatican watcher, Sandro Magister, in L'Espresso magazine recently. ''Some look at him as if he were already de facto pope, the stony defender of the faith in a church under attack from modernity."

Vatican watchers track rise of key cardinal
By Daniel Williams, Washington Post | November 7, 2004

VATICAN CITY -- The strict line on Catholic dogma by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has earned the chief Vatican guardian of orthodoxy a host of nicknames: the Enforcer, the Fundamentalist, and Panzerkardinal, a German neologism that compares the Bavarian-born prelate to a battle tank.

Ratzinger has long been one of Pope John Paul II's closest collaborators. But he has recently taken on an exceptional role as the Vatican's most forceful voice on a range of important and controversial issues facing the Roman Catholic Church. At a time when the ailing pope is seen and heard less and less by the public, Ratzinger's prominence has earned him another nickname in ecclesiastic gossip: John Paul III.

''Cardinal Ratzinger is a singular figure in the history of his office and perhaps the church," said Gianni Baget Bozzo, a theologian who specializes in the Vatican. ''He takes the initiative on a wide range of subjects in a way that is usually reserved to the pope. That's not to say he acts against the pope. He is trusted. But he is a kind of vice pope."