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Benedict XVI | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Bishop of Rome | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
_2.jpg) Benedict XVI in 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Church | Catholic Church | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Papacy began | 19 April 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Papacy ended | 28 February 2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | John Paul II | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Francis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Orders | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ordination | 29 June 1951 by Michael von Faulhaber | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Consecration | 28 May 1977 by Josef Stangl | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Created cardinal | 27 June 1977 by Paul VI | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger 16 April 1927 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 31 December 2022 (aged 95) Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, Vatican City | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | German (with Vatican citizenship) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Motto | Cooperatores veritatis (Latin for 'Cooperators of the truth') | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Coat of arms |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Era | Contemporary philosophy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Region | Western philosophy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Other popes named Benedict | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Papal styles of Pope Benedict XVI | |
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| Reference style | His Holiness |
| Spoken style | Your Holiness |
| Religious style | Holy Father |
Pope Benedict XVI (Latin: Benedictus PP. XVI; Italian: Benedetto XVI; German: Benedikt XVI; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as pope occurred in the 2005 papal conclave that followed the death of Pope John Paul II. Benedict chose to be known as "Pope emeritus" upon his resignation, and he retained this title until his death in 2022.[9][10]
Ordained as a priest in 1951 in his native Bavaria, Ratzinger embarked on an academic career and established himself as a highly regarded theologian by the late 1950s. He was appointed a full professor in 1958 at the age of 31. After a long career as a professor of theology at several German universities, he was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising and created a cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1977, an unusual promotion for someone with little pastoral experience. In 1981, he was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, one of the most important dicasteries of the Roman Curia. From 2002 until he was elected pope, he was also Dean of the College of Cardinals. Before becoming pope, he had been "a major figure on the Vatican stage for a quarter of a century"; he had had an influence "second to none when it came to setting church priorities and directions" as one of John Paul II's closest confidants.[11]
Benedict's writings were prolific and generally defended traditional Catholic doctrine, values, and liturgy.[12] He was originally a liberal theologian but adopted conservative views after 1968.[13] During his papacy, Benedict advocated a return to fundamental Christian values to counter the increased secularisation of many Western countries. He viewed relativism's denial of objective truth, and the denial of moral truths in particular, as the central problem of the 21st century. Benedict also revived several traditions and permitted greater use of the Tridentine Mass.[14] He strengthened the relationship between the Catholic Church and art, promoted the use of Latin,[15] and reintroduced traditional papal vestments, for which reason he was called "the pope of aesthetics".[16] Benedict's handling of sexual abuse cases within the Catholic Church and opposition to usage of condoms in areas of high HIV transmission was substantially criticised by public health officials, anti-AIDS activists, and victim's rights organizations.[17][18]
On 11 February 2013, Benedict announced his (effective 28 February 2013) resignation, citing a "lack of strength of mind and body" due to his advanced age. His resignation was the first by a pope since Gregory XII in 1415, and the first on a pope's initiative since Celestine V in 1294. He was succeeded by Francis on 13 March 2013 and moved into the newly renovated Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Vatican City for his retirement. In addition to his native German language, Benedict had some level of proficiency in French, Italian, English, and Spanish. He also knew Portuguese, Latin, Biblical Hebrew, and Biblical Greek.[19][20][21] He was a member of several social science academies, such as the French Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. He played the piano and had a preference for Mozart and Bach.[22]
Early life: 1927–1951
Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger (German: [ˈjoːzɛf ʔaˈlɔʏzi̯ʊs ˈʁatsɪŋɐ]) was born on 16 April, Holy Saturday, 1927 at Schulstraße 11 at 8:30 in the morning in his parents' home in Marktl, Bavaria, Germany. He was baptised the same day. He was the third and youngest child of Joseph Ratzinger Sr., a police officer, and Maria Ratzinger (née Peintner); his grand-uncle was the German priest-politician Georg Ratzinger. His mother's family was originally from South Tyrol (now in Italy).[23] Benedict's elder brother, Georg, became a Catholic priest and was the former director of the Regensburger Domspatzen choir.[24] His sister, Maria, who never married, managed her brother Joseph's household until she died in 1991.[25]
At the age of five, Ratzinger was in a group of children who welcomed the visiting Cardinal Archbishop of Munich, Michael von Faulhaber, with flowers. Struck by the cardinal's distinctive garb, he announced later that day that he wanted to be a cardinal. He attended the elementary school in Aschau am Inn, which was renamed in his honour in 2009.[26] In 1939, aged 12, he enrolled in a minor seminary in Traunstein.[27] This period lasted until the seminary was closed for military use in 1942, and the students were all sent home. Ratzinger returned to Traunstein.[28]
Wartime and ordination
Ratzinger's family, especially his father, bitterly resented the Nazis, and his father's opposition to Nazism resulted in demotions and harassment of the family.[29] Following his 14th birthday in 1941, Ratzinger was conscripted into the Hitler Youth – as membership was required by law for all 14-year-old German boys after March 1939[30] – but was an unenthusiastic member who refused to attend meetings, according to his brother.[31] In 1941, one of Ratzinger's cousins, a 14-year-old boy with Down syndrome, was taken away by the Nazi regime and murdered during the Aktion T4 campaign of Nazi eugenics.[32] In 1943, while still in seminary, he was drafted into the German anti-aircraft corps as Luftwaffenhelfer.[31] Ratzinger then trained in the German infantry.[33] As the Allied front drew closer to his post in 1945, he deserted back to his family's home in Traunstein after his unit had ceased to exist, just as American troops established a headquarters in the Ratzinger household.[34] As a German soldier, he was interned in US prisoner of war camps, first in Neu-Ulm, then at Fliegerhorst Bad Aibling (shortly to be repurposed as Bad Aibling Station) where he was at the time of Victory in Europe Day, and released on 19 June 1945.[35][34]
Ratzinger and his brother Georg entered Saint Michael Seminary in Traunstein in November 1945, later studying at the Ducal Georgianum (Herzogliches Georgianum) of the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. They were both ordained in Freising on 29 June 1951 by Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber of Munich – the same man Ratzinger had met as a child. He recalled: "at the moment the elderly Archbishop laid his hands on me, a little bird – perhaps a lark – flew up from the altar in the high cathedral and trilled a little joyful song".[36] He celebrated his first Mass later that summer in Traunstein, at St. Oswald's Church.[37]
Ratzinger's 1953 dissertation was on Augustine of Hippo and was titled The People and the House of God in Augustine's Doctrine of the Church. His habilitation (which qualified him for a professorship) was on Bonaventure. It was completed in 1957 and he became a professor at Freising College in 1958.[38]
Encounter with Romano Guardini
In his early twenties, Ratzinger was deeply influenced by the thought of Italian German philosopher Romano Guardini,[39] who taught in Munich from 1946 to 1951 when Ratzinger was studying in Freising and later at the University of Munich. The intellectual affinity between these two thinkers, who would later become decisive figures for the twentieth-century Catholic Church, was preoccupied with rediscovering the essentials of Christianity: Guardini wrote his 1938 The Essence of Christianity, while Ratzinger penned Introduction to Christianity, three decades later in 1968. Guardini inspired many in the Catholic social-democratic tradition, particularly the Communion and Liberation movement in the New Evangelization encouraged under the papacy of the Polish Pope John Paul II. Ratzinger wrote an introduction to a 1996 reissue of Guardini's 1954 The Lord.[40]
Pre-papal career: 1951–2005
Academic career: 1951–1977
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