MAIN People in the News Pope Benedict XVI

Most recently in the news for his visit to America, Pope Benedict XVI met with President George W. Bush in Washington D.C.,, addressed the UN, and visited the World Trade Center site during his trip to the United States which also included the first ever papal visit to a synagogue in the United States, the Park East Synagogue in New York.

Elected pope on April 19, 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is viewed as the natural successor to Pope John Paul II in both outlook and political temperament, and known for his unwillingness to compromise — despite pressure from more liberal Catholic theologians who view the papacy as woefully out of touch with the modern world.

Ratzinger is the eighth German pope and, at age 78, the oldest cardinal to become pope since Clement XII.

Related Bios & Pictures | Quotes

Early Life

The 78-year old pontiff was born Joseph Ratzinger on April 16, 1927 in Marktl am Inn, in Bavaria, to a staunchly anti-Nazi family. With Hitler's rise to power, Ratzinger at age 14 was eventually forced to join the Hitler Youth and, later drafted into the army, went AWOL shortly afterwards. Briefly held in an Allied POW camp, Ratizinger by war's end immediatlely entered a Catholic seminary.

Priesthood

Ordained in 1951, Ratzinger would eventually take a professorship in theology at the University of Bonn, holding similar positions throughout the 1960's at Münster and Tübingen, on his way to becoming one of the church's leading conservative theologians by the time of the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960's.

In 1972, he founded the theological journal Communio one of the most highly-recognizee journals of Catholic thought. Five years later, he was named archbishop of Munich and Freising and three months later, in June 1977, was named a cardinal by Pope Paul VI.

A close ally to Pope John Paul II by 1982 he was named prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, (formerly known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition) and was a staunch conservative and 'protector of the faith' against the unorthodox notions of birth control, divorce and gay marriage.

Papacy

On April 19, 2005 he was elected as successor to Pope John Paul II.

Appearing before thousands of the faithful who had gathered at St. Peter's Square in Rome to see and hear Ratzinger speak his first worlds at Pope Benedict XVI, the new pontiff said:

"Dear brothers and sisters after the great Pope, John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble worker in the Lord's vineyard. The fact that the Lord can work and act even with insufficient means consoles me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers. In the joy of the resurrected Lord, we go on with his help. He is going to help us and Mary will be on our side. Thank you."

Related News, Pictures & Biographies:

The Pope Blog

Pope Benedict XVI - Wikipedia

The Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club

BBC News Profiles: Pope Benedict XVI

The Vatican - Benedict XVI Biography, Photo

The Pope & Papacy - Features on the history and origins of the papacy, the process of electing popes and a 1997 biography of John Paul II.

Famous Quotes:

• "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman." quoting 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus.

• An adult faith does not follow the waves of fashion and the latest novelty.

• Having a clear faith, according to the credo of the church, is often labeled as fundamentalism.

• We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires.

• After having celebrated the divine mysteries, we now enter into conclave to elect the Roman pontiff, the whole church united with us in prayer.