PORTLAND - Penny Marra is pleased a new pope has been elected. But she wonders whether Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was the right choice.

"God bless him," said Marra, who was among the visitors Tuesday to The Grotto, a Roman Catholic shrine and botanical garden.

"But I really think they need to modernize. (Ratzinger) was a conservative cardinal and so I think he will stay on track with what John Paul has done. But I sense we have a problem getting priests in the modern age to stay in the church. They should be allowed to marry," said Marra, 52.

Sarah Arthur, 24, was also strolling through the grounds of The Grotto. She said she had watched the white smoke at the Vatican on television, the first pope election in her lifetime, and it "gave me goosebumps."

Like Roman Catholics around the world, the 400,000 living in Oregon eagerly awaited word of the new pope.

Portland Archbishop John G. Vlazny said in a statement he welcomed the election of Ratzinger and that he plans to attend the pope's installation in Rome on Sunday.

"Our new pope is a very learned man and scholar. He called himself a simple, humble working man," Vlazny said. "In my meetings with him I have found that he listens well, he is cordial and he is collaborative."

As dean of the College of Cardinals, Ratzinger reinforced church orthodoxy and warned about the dangers of abandoning tradition.