BIOGRAPHY OF HIS HOLINESS, POPE
BENEDICT XVI
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, was born at
Marktl am Inn, Diocese of Passau (Germany) on 16 April 1927 (Holy Saturday)
and was baptised on the same day. His father, a policeman, belonged to an
old family of farmers from Lower Bavaria of modest economic resources. His
mother was the daughter of artisans from Rimsting on the shore of Lake
Chiem, and before marrying she worked as a cook in a number of hotels.
He spent his childhood and adolescence in Traunstein, a
small village near the Austrian border, thirty kilometres from Salzburg. In
this environment, which he himself has defined as "Mozartian", he received
his Christian, cultural and human formation.
His youthful years were not easy. His faith and the
education received at home prepared him for the harsh experience of those
years during which the Nazi regime pursued a hostile attitude towards the
Catholic Church. The young Joseph saw how some Nazis beat the Parish Priest
before the celebration of Mass.
It was precisely during that complex situation that he
discovered the beauty and truth of faith in Christ; fundamental for this
was his family’s attitude, who always gave a clear witness of goodness and
hope, rooted in a convinced attachment to the Church.
During the last months of the war he was enrolled in an
auxiliary anti-aircraft corps.
From 1946 to 1951 he studied philosophy and theology in the
Higher School of Philosophy and Theology of Freising and at the University
of Munich.
He received his priestly ordination on 29 June 1951.
A year later he began teaching at the Higher School of
Freising.
In 1953 he obtained his doctorate in theology with a thesis
entitled "People and House of God in St Augustine’s Doctrine of the
Church".
Four years later, under the direction of the renowned
professor of fundamental theology Gottlieb Söhngen, he qualified for
University teaching with a dissertation on: "The Theology of History in St
Bonaventure".
After lecturing on dogmatic and fundamental theology at the
Higher School of Philosophy and Theology in Freising, he went on to teach
at Bonn, from 1959 to1963; at Münster from 1963 to 1966 and at Tübingen
from 1966 to 1969. During this last year he held the Chair of dogmatics and
history of dogma at the University of Regensburg, where he was also
Vice-President of the University.
From 1962 to 1965 he made a notable contribution to Vatican
II as an "expert"; being present at the Council as theological advisor of
Cardinal Joseph Frings, Archbishop of Cologne.
His intense scientific activity led him to important
positions at the service of the German Bishops’ Conference and the
International Theological Commission.
In 1972 together with Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de
Lubac and other important theologians, he initiated the theological journal
"Communio".
On 25 March 1977 Pope Paul VI named him Archbishop of
Munich and Freising. On 28 May of the same year he received episcopal
ordination. He was the first Diocesan priest for 80 years to take on the
pastoral governance of the great Bavarian Archdiocese. He chose as his
episcopal motto: "Cooperators of the truth". He himself explained why: "On
the one hand I saw it as the relation between my previous task as professor
and my new mission. In spite of different approaches, what was involved,
and continued to be so, was following the truth and being at its service.
On the other hand I chose that motto because in today’s world the theme of
truth is omitted almost entirely, as something too great for man, and yet
everything collapses if truth is missing".
Paul VI made him a Cardinal with the priestly title of
"Santa Maria Consolatrice al Tiburtino", during the Consistory of 27 June
of the same year.
In 1978 he took part in the Conclave of 25 and 26 August
which elected John Paul I, who named him his Special Envoy to the III
International Mariological Congress, celebrated in Guayaquil (Ecuador) from
16 to 24 September. In the month of October of the same year he took part
in the Conclave that elected Pope John Paul II.
He was Relator of the V Ordinary General Assembly of the
Synod of Bishops which took place in 1980 on the theme: "Mission of the
Christian Family in the world of today", and was Delegate President of the
VI Ordinary General Assembly of 1983 on "Reconciliation and Penance in the
mission of the Church".
John Paul II named him Prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith and President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission
and of the International Theological Commission on 25 November 1981. On 15
February 1982 he resigned the pastoral governance of the Archdiocese of
Munich and Freising. The Holy Father elevated him to the Order of Bishops
assigning to him the Suburbicarian See of Velletri-Segni on 5 April 1993.
He was President of the Preparatory Commission for the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, which after six years of work (1986-1992)
presented the new Catechism to the Holy Father.
On 6 November 1998 the Holy Father approved the election of
Cardinal Ratzinger as Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals, submitted by
the Cardinals of the Order of Bishops. On 30 November 2002 he approved his
election as Dean; together with this office he was entrusted with the
Suburbicarian See of Ostia.
In 1999 he was Special Papal Envoy for the Celebration of
the XII Centenary of the foundation of the Diocese of Paderborn, Germany
which took place on 3 January.
Since 13 November 2000 he has been an Honorary Academic of
the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
In the Roman Curia he has been a member of the Council of
the Secretariat of State for Relations with States; of the Congregations
for the Oriental Churches, for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacraments, for Bishops, for the Evangelization of Peoples, for Catholic
Education, for Clergy and for the Causes of the Saints; of the Pontifical
Councils for Promoting Christian Unity, and for Culture; of the Supreme
Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, and of the Pontifical Commissions for
Latin America, "Ecclesia Dei", for the Authentic Interpretation of the Code
of Canon Law, and for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law of the Oriental
Churches.
Among his many publications special mention should be made
of his "Introduction to Christianity", a compilation of University lectures
on the Apostolic Creed published in 1968; "Dogma and Preaching" (1973) an
anthology of essays, sermons and reflections dedicated to pastoral
arguments.
His address to the Catholic Academy of Bavaria on "Why I am
still in the Church" had a wide resonance; in it he stated with his usual
clarity: "one can only be a Christian in the Church, not beside the
Church".
His many publications are spread out over a number of years
and constitute a point of reference for many people specially for those
interested in entering deeper into the study of theology. In 1985 he
published his interview-book on the situation of the faith (The Ratzinger
Report) and in 1996 "Salt of the Earth". On the occasion of his 70th
birthday the volume "At the School of Truth" was published, containing
articles by several authors on different aspects of his personality and
production.
He has received numerous "Honoris Causa" Doctorates, in
1984 from the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota; in 1986 from
the Catholic University of Lima; in 1987 from the Catholic University of
Eichstätt; in 1988 from the Catholic University of Lublin; in 1998 from the
University of Navarre; in 1999 from the LUMSA (Libera Università Maria
Santissima Assunta) of Rome and in 2000 from the Faculty of Theology of the
University of Wrocław in Poland.
© Copyright 2005 - Libreria
Editrice Vaticana
His Holiness 