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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.
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