His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, officially in Latin Benedictus PP. XVI, born Joseph Ratzinger (Latin: Iosephus Ratzinger), on April 16, 1927, was elected Pope of the Roman Catholic Church on April 19, 2005. He is the oldest Pope elected in over 100 years, and is the first German Pontif since his home nation controlled the Holy Roman Empire of the 11th Century. The 16th Pope to choose the name Benedict, the last such named Pope (Benedict XV) served as Pope during from 1914 to 1922 and was the Pope during the years of World War I.

In 1981 Cardinal Ratzinger was appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by Pope John Paul II, 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, and also presided over the funeral of John Paul II and the Conclave in 2005. During the sede vacante, he was the highest-ranking official in the Catholic Church.

Joseph Ratzinger was born in Marktl am Inn, in Bavaria, the son of a police officer who was staunchly anti-Nazi. In 1937 Ratzinger's father retired and settled in the town of Traunstein. When Ratzinger turned 14 in 1941, he was required by law to join the Hitler Youth, but 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 fleeing in April 1944 (an offense punishable by death). 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, to Josef Cardinal Frings of Cologne, Germany.

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 was considered to be Pope John Paul II's "right hand man" and also one of his closest friends, and during the Pope's final illness, he carried out many of the Pope's functions as leader of the Catholic Church.

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 Mozart.

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, 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 [1].

On April 19, 2005 he was elected as the successor to Pope John Paul II after two days of 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. For some Catholics who had hoped for a more moderate choice, the selection of Cardinal Ratzinger caused immediate consternation:[2] Ratzinger has a long record of controversial remarks on Islam, Buddhism, politics, and social issues such as homosexuality. However, many observers considered Ratzinger's choice of papal name, with its allusion to the Benedectine tradition (motto: Pax or Peace), an olive branch offered to skeptics.

• 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

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

Wikinews has related news:

• German Cardinal Ratzinger elected Pope Benedict XVI

• 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

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