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His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, officially in Latin Benedictus PP. XVI, born Joseph Alois Ratzinger (Latin: Iosephus Ratzinger), on April 16, 1927, was elected Pope of the Roman Catholic Church on April 19, 2005. As such, he is Bishop of Rome, rules Vatican City and leads the Roman Catholic Church including the Eastern Rite Churches in communion with the Holy See.

Pope Benedict XVI
Installed	April 19, 2005
Term ended	Incumbent
Predecessor	Pope John Paul II
Successor	Incumbent
Personal details
Born	Josef Alois Ratzinger April 16, 1927

He is the oldest (78) Pope elected in 275 years, and is the first German Pontiff since Adrian VI (1522-1523). This is the 16th Pope to choose the name Benedict; the last such named Pope (Benedict XV) served as Pope from 1914 to 1922 and was the Pope during the years of World War I.

Cardinal Ratzinger was appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by Pope John Paul II in 1981, made a Cardinal Bishop of the episcopal see of Velletri-Segni in 1993, and was elected Dean of the College of Cardinals in 2002, becoming titular bishop of Ostia. He was already one of the most influential men in the Vatican and a close associate of the late Pope John Paul II before he became Pope. He also presided over the funeral of John Paul II and the Conclave in 2005 which elected him. During the most recent sede vacante, he was the highest-ranking official in the Catholic Church.

Early life and works

Joseph Ratzinger was born in Marktl am Inn, in Bavaria, the son of a police officer who was anti-Nazi. In 1937 Ratzinger's father retired and setled in the town of Traunstein. When Ratzinger turned 14 in 1941, as required by law he joined the Hitler Youth. According to his biographer John Allen he was not an enthusiastic member. He requested to be taken off the rolls and reportedly refused to attend a single meeting. In 1943, at the age of 16 he was, along with the rest of his class, drafted into the Flak or anti-aircraft corps, responsible for the guarding of a BMW plant outside Munich. He was then sent for basic infantry training and was posted to Hungary, where he worked setting up anti-tank defences until deserting in April 1944. In 1945 he was briefly held in an Allied POW camp, where he attended de-Nazification classes. By June he was released, and he and his brother (Georg) entered a Catholic seminary. On June 29, 1951, they were ordained by Cardinal Faulhaber of Munich. His dissertation (1953) was on Saint Augustine, his Habilitationsschrift (second dissertation) on Saint Bonaventure.

Ratzinger was a professor at the University of Bonn from 1959 until 1963, when he moved to the University of Münster. In 1966, he took a chair in dogmatic theology at the University of Tübingen, where he was a colleague of Hans Küng but was confirmed in his traditionalist views by the liberal atmosphere of Tübingen and the Marxist leanings of the student movement of the 1960s. In 1969 he returned to Bavaria, to the University of Regensburg.

At the Second Vatican Council (1962 – 1965), Ratzinger served as a peritus or chief theological expert alongside Justinae Janisch, to Josef Cardinal Frings of Cologne, Germany.

Communio and later works

In 1972, he founded the theological journal Communio (link) with Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac and others. Communio, now published in seventeen editions (German, English, Spanish and many others), has become one of the most important journals of Catholic thought.

In March 1977 Ratzinger was named archbishop of Munich and Freising and in the consistory that June was named a Cardinal by Pope Paul VI. At the time of the 2005 Conclave, he was one of only 14 remaining cardinals appointed by Paul VI, and one of only three of those under the age of 80, and so eligible to participate in that Conclave.

On November 25, 1981 Pope John Paul II named Ratzinger prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition, which was renamed in 1908 by Pope Pius X. He resigned the Munich archdiocese in early 1982, became cardinal-bishop of Velletri-Segni in 1993, vice-dean of the College of Cardinals in 1998, and was elected Dean in 2002. In office, Ratzinger usually took traditional views on topics such as birth control and inter-religious dialogue. He was closer to John Paul II than any other cardinal, and Ratzinger and John Paul were called "intellectual bedfellows." Many see him as being a "scientist" who prefers intellectual discussions.

Recent news and influence

On January 2, 2005, Time quoted unnamed Vatican sources as saying that Ratzinger was a frontrunner to succeed John Paul II should the Pope die or become too ill to continue as Pontiff.

Piers Paul Read wrote in The Spectactor on March 5, 2005:

There can be little doubt that his courageous promotion of orthodox Catholic teaching has earned him the respect of his fellow cardinals throughout the world. He is patently holy, highly intelligent and sees clearly what is at stake. Indeed, for those who blame the decline of Catholic practice in the developed world precisely on the propensity of many European bishops to hide their heads in the sand, a pope who confronts it may be just what is required. Ratzinger is no longer young — he is 78 years old: but Angelo Roncalli was the same age when he became Pope as John XXIII. He turned the Church upside-down by calling the Second Vatican Council and was perhaps the best-loved pontiff of modern times. As Jeff Israely, the correspondent of Time, was told by a Vatican insider last month, "The Ratzinger solution is definitely on.

However it is important to note that Ratzinger's election to the Papal office was by no means certain. In conclaves men who are considered papabile often are not elected to office. At times men considered certain to win the election did not win. This is expressed in the saying, "He who enters the conclave as Pope leaves as a Cardinal."

Benedict has repeatedly stated he would like to retire to a Bavarian village and dedicate himself to writing books, but more recently, he told friends he was ready to "accept any charge God placed on him." After the death of John Paul II on April 2, 2005 Ratzinger ceased functioning as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. As he is now Pope, it will be up to him to decide who will follow him as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Benedict speaks ten languages (among them German, Italian, English, and ecclesiastical Latin). He is an accomplished pianist with a preference for Beethoven.

He is the eighth German pope. The last German pope, Adrian VI, was elected in 1522 and died in 1523. He is also the oldest cardinal to become pope since Clement XII in 1730, who like Ratzinger was elected at age 78.

In April, 2005, he was identified as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine On April 19, 2005 he was elected as the successor to Pope John Paul II on the second day of the papal conclave.

On his first appearance at the balcony of Saint Peter's Basillica after becoming Pope, he had notably forgotten to take his black sweater off before putting on his Papal robes, leaving it clearly showing on his arms. At the balcony, his first words to the crowd of thousands were:

"Dear brothers and sisters, after the Great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me, a simple, humble worker in the Lord's vineyard. I am comforted by the fact that the Lord knows how to work and act even with insufficient instruments. And above all, I entrust myself to your prayers. With the joy of the risen Lord and confidence in His constant help, we will go forward. The Lord will help us and Mary, His most holy mother, will be alongside us. Thank you."

"We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as definitive and has as its highest value one's own ego and one's own desires," he declared at a pre-conclave Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

Literature

• Allen, John L.: Cardinal Ratzinger : the Vatican's enforcer of the faith. - New York : Continuum, 2000
• Wagner, Karl: Kardinal Ratzinger : der Erzbischof in München und Freising in Wort und Bild. - München : Pfeiffer, 1977
• Janish, Justin: Pope Culture. - Boston : Harvard Press, 2002

See also

• Dominus Iesus
• List of popes and antipopes known as Pope Benedict

External links

• The Holy See official Vatican web site
• Analysis: Ratzinger in the ascendance
• The Pope Blog: Pope Benedict XVI
• Amici di Joseph Ratzinger
• Communio magazine, founded by Ratzinger and others. Contains recent articles by him.
• Catholic Apologetics of America, a website that supports Pope Benedict XVI
• Open Directory Project - Benedict XVI Directory category.
• Pope News Roundup

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