Background

Born on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, Germany, Joseph Ratzinger grew up in the small town of Traunstein in the southern German region of Bavaria. His father Joseph was a policeman who took a dim view of the Nazi ideology that was on the rise and later suffered a job demotion as a result. Bavaria was the heartland of German Catholicism, and the church's complex and all-encompassing rituals moved Ratzinger. "The Church year gave the time its rhythm, and I experienced that with great gratitude and joy already as a child," Ratzinger wrote in a memoir quoted by Anthony Grafton in a New Yorker magazine survey of Ratzinger's writings. "It was a riveting adventure to move by degrees into the mysterious world of the liturgy, which was being enacted before us and for us there on the altar."

Education

Ratzinger entered the Catholic seminary in Freising in 1939. In 1941 he was compelled to join the Hitler Youth, and in 1943 he was drafted into the German military, serving in an antiaircraft unit in Bavaria before being sent to Hungary to set tank traps in 1945. He deserted in April of that year and was captured by American forces and held prisoner for a brief period.

After the war, Ratzinger continued his education in the seminary; he was ordained a priest in June 1951. In 1953 he was awarded a doctorate in theology at the University of Munich. His thesis was entitled: "The People and House of God in St Augustine's doctrine of the Church."

Career

It was Ratzinger's writings as a graduate student that first got him noticed in German theological circles. His doctoral dissertation was about St. Augustine, the North-African Christian mystic philosopher of late antiquity who did much to define a realm of Christian thought and existence that was separate from the everyday world. Asked later by an interviewer what books he would take with him if he were to be marooned on a desert island, Ratzinger named the Bible and Augustine's Confessions. German universities vied for his services in the 1950s and 1960s, and even after he became ensconced in the Catholic hierarchy later on he retained a fondness for intellectual discussion and sought it out whenever he could. He began teaching at Freising College in Augsburg in 1958, moved to the University of Bonn in 1959 and the University of Münster in 1963, and was recruited by one of Germany's top theologians and most renowned public intellectuals, Swiss-born Hans Küng, to teach at the University of Tübingen in 1966.

By that time, Ratzinger was a recognized expert on Catholic theology. As such, he was invited to serve at the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) as a theological consultant to Archbishop Josef Frings of Cologne, Germany, one of the central figures of that groundbreaking reform conclave. Ratzinger as a young writer was considered a reformer like Küng, and he inquired in some of his writings as to the limits of papal power. According to his biographer John Allen, Ratzinger spoke of a "horizontal Catholicity" made up of bishops and lay church members that should function as a counterpart to centralized church power in Rome. It was Ratzinger who wrote a section of Frings' speech at Vatican II that condemned the Spanish Inquisition as a scandal. Ratzinger wrote a textbook, Introduction to Christianity, in 1968.

In May of 1968, campuses across Europe erupted in student protests, some of them violent. Ratzinger's negative reaction to the leftist movement brought about a sharp change in his overall outlook, and he turned from a reformer into a doctrinal conservative and into a defender of the faith as the word has traditionally been understood. He founded a widely read journal of Catholic ideas, Comunio, in 1972. In 1977 he was made a Cardinal by Pope Paul VI and became Archbishop of Munich and Freising.

Pope John Paul II named Ratzinger a Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1982 - the office that had once carried out what was known as the Inquisition. In this post, he was the chief overseer of Catholic doctrine. Over the years, Ratzinger consistently reaffirmed traditional church teachings on birth control, homosexuality (which he once, according to People, called "an intrinsic moral evil"), divorce, priestly celibacy, and other hot-button issues on which American Catholics increasingly challenged Rome's authority while Europeans simply shrugged as church attendance dropped. He was one of the few church figures to read the much-discussed Third Prophecy said to have been given by an apparition of the Virgin Mary to a Portuguese girl, Lucia dos Santos, in 1917, but his few comments on the matter did little to dampen speculation as to the message's contents.

Ratzinger's hard work was rewarded with a steady rise into John Paul's inner circle. In 2002 Pope John Paul II approved his selection as Dean of the College of Cardinals - making Ratzinger, at the very least, a figure of key importance in the selection of the next pope. After the death of the much-beloved John Paul on April 2, 2005, speculation centered on whether the College of Cardinals would opt for continuity with John Paul's conservatism or change direction in some way. Campaigning for the papacy was done only in the subtlest of ways, but the 78-year-old Ratzinger did not avail himself even of those; he made no secret of his desire to return to a life of quiet study in Germany after his 25-year-stint as doctrinal point man. Nevertheless, after a relatively brief two-day papal conclave of the College of Cardinals, Ratzinger was elected Pope on the fourth ballot. He took the name Benedict XVI in honor of St. Benedict, one of the great fathers of Catholic monasticism.

Benedict XVI immediately took steps to continue John Paul’s dialogue with Judaism and Islam and with other Christian churches. Further, he declared that one of the goals of his papacy would be to revitalize the Catholic church in Europe. Benedict also indicated that he would maintain his predecessor’s conservative orthodoxy on matters of sexuality, priestly celibacy, and ecclesiastical organization.

During the early years of his papacy, Benedict visited several countries, including Turkey, where he met the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople in the hope of improving relations between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. He issued new guidelines allowing greater use of the Latin mass - the order of the mass used before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council - and he published the encyclicals Deus caritas est (2005; "God Is Love") and Spe salvi (2007; "Saved by Hope"). In 2007 Benedict approved the decisions of the International Theological Commission, an advisory panel to the Vatican, that the traditional teaching of limbo was "unduly restrictive" and that unbaptized infants could be saved. He made his first trip to the Western Hemisphere, visiting Brazil, where he canonized Father Antonio Galvão (1739–1822), the first native-born Brazilian saint. He also overturned John Paul’s reform of the papal election process and restored the traditional practice when he declared that the election of a new pope requires a two-thirds majority of the cardinals attending the conclave.

In 2008 Benedict made his first visit as pope to the United States, where he spoke out against clerical sexual abuse and delivered an address at the United Nations. Later that year he addressed the first Catholic-Muslim Forum, a three-day conference of Catholic theologians and Islamic scholars hosted by the Vatican to promote improved understanding between the two religions.

Benedict made a controversial decision in January 2009 to revoke the excommunications of four bishops who in 1988 had been consecrated, without papal sanction, by Marcel Lefebvre (1905–91), an ultraconservative French archbishop who was excommunicated with them. In November of that same year, in an act of outreach to conservative Anglicans, Benedict approved an apostolic constitution, or special decree, that allowed Anglican clergymen and laypersons to join the Roman Catholic Church while maintaining some Anglican traditions.

In 2010 allegations of sexual and physical abuse by parish priests and in parochial schools - particularly in Germany, Ireland, and the United States - brought Benedict, and his role in the cases in Germany in particular, under close media scrutiny. In a pastoral letter, Benedict rebuked the bishops of the Irish church for a failure of leadership. The Vatican also denounced as "false and calumnious" the charge that as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Benedict had been responsible for a policy of covering up cases of sexual abuse, declaring that his handling of the cases showed "wisdom and firmness."

In February 2013 Benedict announced that he would resign at the end of that month, citing age and health concerns. His final public address in St. Peter’s Square drew a crowd of more than 50,000. On February 28 he formally resigned, taking the title pope emeritus.

Achievements

• Before being elected pope, Cardinal Ratzinger was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He certainly had an illustrious life.
  
  Pope Benedict XVI was a Pope from 2005 to 2013. His papacy has reflected his belief that the Catholic Church should retain its core traditional, conservative values in an era of rapid change. Pope Benedict XVI also reinstated the use of traditional papal garments that had been dismissed by John Paul II and is often described as 'The Pope of aesthetics.'
  
  He is the first Pope to have resigned since Gregory XII in the year 1415. He is the first Pope to have been active on Twitter and to have attended full-length television and radio interviews. Described as a highly intellectual person by many, he was a professor of theology and an academic, prior to being a Cardinal. Ratzinger has received numerous honors for his contributions in the fields of literature and theology.
  
  Being a prolific author, he has written over 60 books, 3 encyclicals titled Deus Caritas est, Spesalvi, and Caritas in veritate. He has also written 3 exhortations titled Sacramentum Caritatis, Verbum Domini0, and Africae munus. Over 600 of his written works have been published.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The God Of Jesus Christ: Meditations on the Triune God

    (In this book of meditations, based on a series of meditat...)

    1977
  • The Spirit of the Liturgy

    (Considered by Ratzinger devotees as his greatest work on ...)

    2000
  • Principles of Catholic Theology: Building Stones for a Fundamental Theology

    (A collection of articles and talks written around a centr...)

    1982
  • Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures

    (Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures discusses the dan...)

    2005
  • Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church

    (Based on Pope Benedict XVI's weekly teaching on the relat...)

    2007
  • Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life

    (Originally published in English in 1988, Joseph Ratzinger...)

    1977
  • Theological Highlights of Vatican II

    (Here is a significant book comprising Joseph Ratzinger's ...)

    1963
  • Images of Hope: Meditations on Major Feasts

    (In Images of Hope: Meditations on Major Feasts, Joseph Ca...)

  • The Blessing Of Christmas: Meditations for the Season

    (This lovely little book, profusely illustrated, is ideal ...)

    1986
  • The Theology of History in Saint Bonaventure

    (The Theology of History in Saint Bonaventure is Joseph Ra...)

    1989
  • Behold the Pierced One

    (Proceeding from the prayerful dialogue between Jesus and ...)

    1984
  • Truth And Tolerance: Christian Belief And World Religions

    (Is truth knowable? If we know the truth, must we hide it ...)

    2004
  • Introduction to Christianity

    (One of Cardinal Ratzinger's most important and widely rea...)

    1968
  • The Feast of Faith: Approaches to a Theology of the Liturgy

    (Are liturgy and prayer important in an age of political c...)

    1981
  • Principles of Christian Morality

    (A collection of essays by three giants of twentieth-centu...)

    1975
  • On the Way to Jesus Christ

    (On the Way to Jesus Christ is a series of meditations tha...)

    2005
  • What It Means To Be A Christian: Three Sermons

    (Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, writes eloquentl...)

    2006
  • Jesus of Nazareth: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection

    (For Christians, Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, who ...)

    2011
  • A Turning Point for Europe?

    (Cardinal Ratzinger addresses the challenges and responsib...)

    1991
  • The Joy of Knowing Christ: Meditations on the Gospels

    (Knowing that there is a God who is good, who knows us, wh...)

    2009
  • Called to Communion: Understanding the Church Today

    (This is a book of wisdom and insight that explains how pr...)

    1991
  • From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy and the Crisis of the Catholic Church

    (In this book, Pope Emeritus Benedict and Cardinal Robert ...)

    2020
  • Holiness is Always in Season

    (This inspiring volume presents the Pope's numerous reflec...)

    2011
  • God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life

    (The Second Vatican Council says, "We ought to try to disc...)

    2003
  • Saved in Hope: Spe Salvi

    (Pope Benedict XVI's second encyclical, Saved In Hope, ("S...)

    2007
  • Faith and The Future

    (Increasingly, the future is becoming a theme for theologi...)

    1971
  • Doctors of the Church

    (They are saints and teachers, monks, priests, bishops, an...)

    2011

Religion

A return to Roman liturgical tradition was a key aspect of the pontificate of Benedict XVI. This included ritual sobriety, the increased employment of Latin, the restoration of formerly abandoned vesture and practices, and the liberalization of the use of the Roman rites as celebrated in 1962 (the Extraordinary Form, including the Mass of John XXIII). It is noteworthy that Pope Francis has continued the general lines of this Benedictine "reform."

From the very beginning of his papacy, Benedict announced joyfully that Christianity is not an idea, however sublime, or a moral code, however enlightened, but an encounter: a personal encounter with the person of Jesus Christ. This Jesus Christ is not a figure from the past to whom the church makes perfunctory reference, but rather the living Lord who is the very source of the church’s life. Christians live, move, and have their being in the body whose head is Christ.

Benedict’s passion for Christ infused the homilies he preached. Many scholars say that his homilies represent the finest papal homilies since figures like Leo the Great and Gregory the Great. They are accessible to all by the depth of their insight and the vividness of their imagery. They point evocatively beyond themselves to the inexhaustible mystery of Christ.

Along with his homilies, Benedict’s books on Jesus will remain a permanent part of his legacy. Writing them was a unique undertaking for a pope. They are far more than an academic exercise and are animated by deep pastoral concern.

Benedict gives voice to this concern in a poignant way in the foreword to the first volume of Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration. He laments that some contemporary approaches to the New Testament have raised doubts in people’s minds regarding the reliability of our knowledge of Jesus. He recognizes the peril this poses and admits, "This is a dramatic situation for faith because its point of reference is being placed in doubt. Intimate friendship with Jesus, on which everything depends, is in danger of clutching at thin air."

In his third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (2009), on the church’s social teaching, Pope Benedict developed the notion of integral humanism. He borrows the phrase from 20th-century French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain, but the reality to which it points is central to the Catholic tradition.

At its most basic level, integral humanism advocates and supports the compatibility and mutual enrichment of faith and reason. No dimension of human experience lies outside the concern and compass of faith, and faith can be enriched by whatever is true and good in human culture and achievement.

Further, integral humanism suggests that we must consider the human person as a whole in all the dimensions of human activity. This ecologically minded pope teaches that our concern for the environment must be matched by a concern for human ecology: the well-being of humankind in the physical, political, and economic orders. He writes in Caritas in Veritate, "The deterioration of nature is, in fact, closely connected to the culture that shapes human coexistence: When ‘human ecology’ is respected within society, environmental ecology also benefits."

Benedict’s thoughts have always been closely dependent on concrete figures who serve him as role models and continuing inspiration. Certainly, his engagement with St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.) is longstanding. He identifies with the sense of yearning and of ongoing quest in the North African church father’s life and writings. He also learned as a young student from the English Cardinal John Henry Newman that faith has nothing to fear from reason and that reason is expanded by faith. Benedict had the great joy of beatifying Newman during his 2010 visit to England.

Politics

Benedict is a pope whose teachings challenge both the political left and right. On the economy, the pope defended the rights of workers in the most explicit terms: "Through the combination of social and economic change, trade union organizations experience greater difficulty in carrying out their task of representing the interests of workers, partly because Governments, for reasons of economic utility, often limit the freedom or the negotiating capacity of labor unions. Hence traditional networks of solidarity have more and more obstacles to overcome. The repeated calls issued within the Church's social doctrine, beginning with Rerum Novarum, for the promotion of workers' associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honored today even more than in the past, as a prompt and far-sighted response to the urgent need for new forms of cooperation at the international level, as well as the local level."

On another political issue, global climate change, Benedict has been something of an innovator, developing Catholic moral theology to embrace a clear concern for the environment. In 2010, in an interview with Peter Seewald, Benedict said that as pope, he recognized "an inner obligation to struggle for the preservation of the environment and to oppose the destruction of creation." He applied traditional moral ideas about stewardship to contemporary environmental concerns and has called for drastic international action to avert further damage to the climate. Additionally, and always keen to the power of symbols, the Vatican became one of the first carbon-neutral states in the world as the Holy See installed solar panels on various buildings within the small territory it holds on the bank of the Tiber.

Benedict has also been a tireless advocate for peace, especially in the Mideast where political instability often results in specific threats to those few, but ancient, Christian communities that remain in Muslim lands. He has engaged in dialogue with the Muslim world, and encouraged it to stand against any fanaticism within its ranks, but he also has urged Israelis to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Palestinians.

Views

Ratzinger played a key role in severely limiting the reach of the activist liberation theology movement that flourished in much of Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s, believing that the movement erred in associating salvation too closely with good works. Ratzinger required one of the movement's leaders, Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff, to stop writing and teaching. He also worked to limit the influence of his former mentor Hans Küng, who was quoted by David van Biema of Time as saying that a conversation with Ratzinger was like talking with the "head of the KGB," the secret police of the Communist-era Soviet Union.

Speaking on his choice of pontifical name, Benedict said, "Filled with sentiments of awe and thanksgiving, I wish to speak of why I chose the name Benedict. Firstly, I remember Pope Benedict XV, that courageous prophet of peace, who guided the Church through turbulent times of war. In his footsteps, I place my ministry in the service of reconciliation and harmony between peoples. Additionally, I recall Saint Benedict of Nursia, co-patron of Europe, whose life evokes the Christian roots of Europe. I ask him to help us all to hold firm to the centrality of Christ in our Christian life: May Christ always take first place in our thoughts and actions!"

On April 20, 2005, Benedict listed the top priorities of his pontificate in a message read in Latin to cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel for the first Mass celebrated by the 265th leader of the Roman Catholic Church. He said his "primary task" would be to work without fail to reunify all Christians and that sentiment alone was not enough. "Concrete acts that enter souls and move consciences are needed," he said. The Pope also declared his willingness to continue "an open and sincere dialogue" with other religions and would do everything in his power to improve the ecumenical cause.

Upon his election as pope, two distinct pictures of Benedict XVI emerged. He was seen as a strict conservative, as a staunch defender of the Christian faith generally in an increasingly secular and spiritually multivalent world, and of Catholicism as the one true church. Being conservative on moral issues, he stood against semi-sex marriages, and birth control, he also rejected the use of condoms. He rejected calls for a debate on the issue of clerical celibacy and reaffirmed the ban on Communion for divorced Catholics who remarry. He has also said the Church's strict positions on abortion, euthanasia and gay partnerships were "not negotiable."

Quotations: "I think we must reflect more on what democracy in the exercise of authority would mean. Is truth determined by a majority vote, only for a new 'truth' to be 'discovered' by a new majority tomorrow?"

"We have such difficulty understanding this renunciation today because the relationship to marriage and children has clearly shifted. To have to die without children was once synonymous with a useless life: The echoes of my own life die away, and I am completely dead. If I have children, then I continue to live in them; it's a sort of immortality through posterity. "

"Unlimited trust should only be placed in the real Word of the Revelation that we encounter in the faith transmitted by the Church."

""Rock" [music]... is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the experience of being part of a crowd and by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe."

"When human affairs are so ordered that there is no recognition of God, there is a belittling of man. That is why, in the final analysis, worship and law cannot be completely separated from each other. God has a right to a response from man, to man himself, and where that right of God totally disappears, the order of law among men is dissolved, because there is no cornerstone to keep the whole structure together."

"Because God loves us, because He wants us to grow into truth, He must necessarily make demands on us and must also correct us.

"Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves."

"Every economic decision has a moral consequence."

Membership

• 

  Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques , France

Personality

Ratzinger speaks fluent German, French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, and English. He has a pilot’s license and sometimes flies the papal helicopter to the summer residence. He never learned to drive a car.

Ratzinger's favorite meal is Bavarian potato ravioli with pancake strips.

Pope Benedict was once asked which two books he would take with him to read on a deserted island. His answer was the Bible and Augustine’s Confessions.

Pope Benedict XVI re-introduced papal garments and the wearing of the traditional red papal shoes. For ordinary events, he wears the traditional white caped cassock. He restored the use of the papal mozzetta too, last worn by Pope Paul VI. He never wore the papal tiara but opted for a miter instead. Pope John Paul II had very little interest in fashion and certainly wasn’t interested in elaborate papal clothing. People who appreciate fashion have admired Pope Benedict XVI’s style and charisma.

Physical Characteristics: Benedict XVI received a pacemaker while he was a cardinal.

Quotes from others about the person

• "Pope Benedict XVI is working softly, slowly, often silently, unobtrusively, behind the scenes, mostly unseen. But he is working hard. I like the great job of reconciliation that he is doing inside the Roman Catholic Church: reconciliation between traditionalists and liberals, conservative and reform-oriented faithful, liturgical Latinists and Mass polyglots, old-time lovers and progressives, high-flying souls and pedestrian believers, thinkers, and doers - Christians and Catholics. It is a hidden work of diplomacy, interactions, influences, concessions, agreements, acknowledgments. A "hard job" well done until now." - Leon Bertoletti
  
  "He has the intelligence of 12 professors and is as pious as a child on the day of his first communion." - Cardinal Joachim Meisner

Interests

• playing the piano, reading

• Writers

  Romano Guardini

• Artists

  Michael Triegel

• Sport & Clubs

  soccer, FC Bayern Munich

• Music & Bands

  Beethoven, Mozart

Connections

Being a Catholic clergyman, Ratzinger was not married.

Father:

Joseph Ratzinger

Mother:

Maria Ratzinger

Brother:

Georg Ratzinger

Sister:

Maria Ratzinger

successor :

Pope Francis

References

• Benedict XVI: A Life: Volume One: Youth in Nazi Germany to the Second Vatican Council 1927–1965 The long-awaited and authoritative biography of Pope Benedict XVI, a giant of the Catholic Church. Benedict XVI: Volume One offers insight into the young life and rise through the Church's ranks of a man who would become a hero and a lightning rod for Catholics the world over.
  2020
• Benedict XVI: His Life and Thought In these pages, Benedict XVI shares his story for the first time since his retirement from the papacy.
  2016
• Dictatorship of Relativism: Pope Benedict XVI's Response This work shows how the insidious danger of relativism was experienced by the young Joseph Ratzinger in Nazi Germany where truth gave way to pragmatism and human rights were trampled, how his worldview was solidified when studying Augustine and Bonaventure, and how the Second Vatican Council was sensitive to this issue.
  2011
• The Theology of Benedict XVI: A Protestant Appreciation In this collection of essays, prominent Protestant theologians examine and commend the work of Pope Emeritus. Katherine Sonderegger, Kevin Vanhoozer, and Carl Trueman-among others-present a full picture of Benedict's theology, particularly his understanding of the relationship between faith and reason and his pursuit of truth for the church.
  2019