If you don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s rye, then you definitely don’t have to be Catholic to cheer the new pope.

The line from the old bread commercial came to mind Tuesday as I watched the joyous throngs in St. Peter’s Square. I’m not Catholic, but I am a devout believer in the necessity of a strong pope. And nobody can doubt that Joseph Ratzinger will be a strong pope. Hooray for that, and hooray for him.

The papacy matters to us non-Catholics because we live in a world gone mad for the latest fad. Most of us are moral transients, our technology-fueled culture crashing at warp speed through one taboo after another. Old-fashioned virtue is hailed only if it makes you feel good.

Many elements of the modern world — media, movies, fashion, the arts — conspire to trash tradition and work against families with children. Actors, athletes, even porn stars are the new arbiters of right and wrong. Wealth has become synonymous with wisdom, fame with worth.

Ultimately, it’s all unsatisfying, this orgy of glitz and glitter and greed. Most of us know that, of course, but we still spend too much time and energy trying to win the race, to get more. And if we don’t get what we want, we hire a lawyer to get it for us. Or we steal it.

Merely by existing, the pope reminds us of our foolishness. A sighting of him on TV, a casual reference, can summon the soul to embrace timeless truths, however fleetingly.

A strong pope does that and much, much more. A strong pope, such as John Paul II, reminds us not only of the kingdom of Heaven, but leads us to better lives now.

Great religious figures of any faith aspire to do this, but none can lay claim to the sheer power of the papacy. The world’s foremost religious institution is a unique moral symbol to all mankind. Even wrapped in its ancient rituals and mysterious processes, and even when it fails, the papacy, as John Paul II showed in both his life and his death, remains reassuringly relevant. It can, he proved, be modern while staying true to its eternal mission.

Just knowing that can soften the edge of everyday disappointments. When our hearts sink because beloved baseball players are discovered to be chemical freaks or admired merchant princes turn out to be crooks, we can count on the pope. He will be steady, consistent, unshakable.

Catholic or not, the universal yearning for a pillar of rectitude is why millions journeyed to Rome to pay their final respects to John Paul II, and it’s why St. Peter’s Square was jammed and joyful Tuesday. The pope is dead, long live the pope.

To judge from the first wave of reactions to Ratzinger’s election, many Catholics and church critics hoped for someone younger and more liberal than the 78-year-old German. His record, including a recent forceful blast at “a dictatorship of relativism,” suggests he will not be an agent of major change. He has also denounced homosexuality and gay marriage.

Not to be glib or callous, but those are details. So, too, is the issue of whether priests can marry or whether women should be ordained. As are countless other issues demanding attention and answers.

I’ll leave it to those who belong to the church to wrestle with those problems. However it comes out is basically fine with me. It’s not my church and because it’s not imposing secular laws on me, I don’t have a vote and I don’t want one.

But the pope is still my pope. All I ask, even demand, is that he not be reduced to just another politician who puts his finger to the wind before opening his mouth.

We have enough of those.