US reaction: The selection of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope has produced mixed reactions in the United States, where three in four Catholics said in a survey yesterday that they would follow their own conscience on difficult moral questions. Only one in five in the snap Gallup poll said they would follow the conservative teachings of the Vatican theologian who is now Pope Benedict XVI, writes Conor O'Clery in New York
Initial comments focused on welcoming the new pontiff, however, and Cardinal Edward Egan of New York extended an invitation to Pope Benedict to visit the United States at an early date. "He is a man who serves the Lord" and a "man of great wisdom and knowledge", said President George Bush.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi noted that Pope John Paul II had done "God's work here on Earth, seeking peace and justice for all", and hoped the new Pope would "build on that legacy".
The election of Cardinal Ratzinger has delighted orthodox Catholics but has dispelled hopes among liberal American Catholics that the Vatican would develop a more "progressive" attitude to contraception and women and married priests.
Many Democrats also recalled Cardinal Ratzinger's intervention in the 2004 US election campaign, which may have helped Mr Bush.
In a June 2004 letter he ordered US bishops to deny communion to abortion rights supporters.
He specifically mentioned "the case of a Catholic politician consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws", which was taken as a reference to Democratic candidate John Kerry, a Catholic who supports women's right to choose.
The letter also said that Catholics who voted specifically for a candidate because of a pro-abortion position would be "guilty of formal co-operation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for holy communion".
Apart from a small number of bishops, the US hierarchy left the decision to individual priests, and Senator Kerry received communion several times.
In the presidential election the majority of Catholics voted for President Bush, who promoted a "culture of life" and took a similar line on controversial issues as the German cardinal, including opposition to abortion, stem cell research and gay marriage.
Senator Kerry said the election of Pope Benedict represented "a great moment of hope, renewal and possibility for the Catholic Church" and he expressed the hope that his pontificate "will touch the world in the same way Pope John Paul II did".