Rome, Italy - The first seven months of Pope Benedict XVI's rule had been so quiet, lacking a single defining act, that a thought began to nag here: Was it possible that Benedict, 78, so contentious as a cardinal and so full of ideas, would turn out a mere caretaker pope?
He seemed to raise the possibility himself.
"My personal mission is not to issue many new documents," he told a television interviewer last month. Rather, he wanted to assure that the many works of Pope John Paul II were "assimilated, because they are a rich treasure."
Then on Tuesday, the first major document of his papacy leaked out, banning most gay men from the priesthood. For many church experts, the document was an overdue sign that this would, in fact, be an active papacy - though perhaps quieter, more deliberative and more surprising than many expected when this very subtle man who had been called "God's Rottweiler" by his critics took office.
"The previous pope was characterized by great symbolic gestures," said Sandro Magister, one of Italy's leading Vatican analysts. "Benedict XVI is not looking for symbolic acts."
"John Paul II wrote headlines," he said. "Benedict is writing the novel."
One Roman Catholic layman with ties to the Vatican, speaking anonymously because he did not want to endanger those ties, said, "The impression is that he is not, let's say, governing too much."
"But nevertheless, changes are happening," he added.
On one level, the document on gay seminarians would appear to be a strong opening move, very much in the character of Benedict, who as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger served for two decades as John Paul's conservative defender of the faith.
It seemed to confirm expectations among liberal Catholics that the pope is aiming at doctrinal rigidity and among conservatives that doctrine would finally be observed.
But as many church experts point out, the document about gay seminarians was begun under John Paul as long as a decade ago. They also note that it was issued slightly at a distance - not from Benedict personally, but through the Vatican department in charge of Catholic education.
Many experts say Benedict's first encyclical, scheduled for release in early December, is likely to be more illuminating. The few hints that have leaked out suggest that it will not address contentious social issues like abortion or euthanasia but will be a meditation on returning Christ to the center of church and human life.
One thing seems certain about Benedict's rule: Though he remains deeply conservative - and has strongly affirmed John Paul's positions against abortion, homosexuality and secularism - he will not be easy to pigeonhole.
A case in point was Benedict's decision to invite the Rev. Hans Küng, the liberal Swiss theologian barred by John Paul from teaching in Catholic schools, for a four-hour chat and dinner at the summer papal palace. John Paul refused for years to meet with Dr. Küng. The meeting with so prominent a liberal dissident, whom Benedict had known for decades, seemed all the more notable given his earlier meetings with high-profile conservatives like Oriana Fallaci, the Italian writer critical of John Paul for not being tough enough against militant Islam.
"Considering the shrewdness with which this pope moves, there is no doubt that these are important signs, if not easily decipherable," the Italian newspaper La Stampa said in September.
The contradictions, or little surprises, go on.
This shy man with little of John Paul's charisma continues to draw much larger crowds than his predecessor at the traditional Wednesday audiences at St. Peter's Square. A common joke is that most of Germany has come to have a peek at the new German pope.
A man who as cardinal expressed reservations about John Paul's efforts at interreligious dialogue continues to put that at the center of his papacy. It seems possible, though not certain, that he will also make strides with two of the most difficult challenges for the church: Catholicism in China and the 1,000-year rift with the Orthodox churches.
(This being Italy, and the papacy being an Italian institution, fashion should not go unmentioned: a somewhat dowdy, professorish man has taken to stylish sunglasses and bright red shoes made by Prada.)
But big initiatives have yet to be articulated. Many experts expected that Benedict, who took his name from the monk who spread Christianity in Europe at the time of the barbarians, would address with more muscle an effort to re-evangelize Europe. So far, though, there has been little evidence of any effort to cultivate what he has called the "mustard seed," or small groups of strong believers, rather than reaching out to the larger population of Catholics.
One area in which Benedict, or at least the Vatican, does appear to be moving with some aggressiveness is in Italian politics, which it sees as an important front in the fight against secularism in Europe, to express the church's concern with social issues like abortion.
Earlier this year, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the chief of the Italian bishops' conference who is a close adviser to the pope and was one of the kingmakers of his election, helped defeat a referendum here on assisted fertility. In recent weeks, the cardinal has been outspoken against recognition of homosexual unions and the introduction of the morning-after pill, and has spoken in favor of having counselors in state health clinics to advise women against abortions.
In a nation sensitive to interference from the church - though it paradoxically often looks to the church for moral guidance - the campaign has caused some anger.
"The presence of the church in the public and institutional arena is becoming ever more strong, invasive," the left-wing daily La Repubblica editorialized last week.
But Benedict has mostly kept above the fray, even while strongly defending the church's right to speak out on issues important to it. He told President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in June that he believed in a secular state, "without nevertheless excluding those ethical references that find their ultimate roots in religion."
Marco Tosatti, a Vatican expert for La Stampa, voiced one common assessment of the new pope: "It is very difficult to make predictions. But he wants to do things the way he is used to: slowly and quietly."