Pope Benedict XVI

About Pope Benedict XVI

Joseph Ratzinger was born in Bavaria in 1927, the son of a policeman who made no secret of his dislike for the Nazi regime. As a teenager he was conscripted into anti-aircraft defence and deserted at the end of the war. He became one of the most influential theologians of the century, served as an expert at the Second Vatican Council, and then spent almost twenty-four years as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Elected in 2005, he wrote with unusual clarity for the subject: his first encyclical was about love, and he signed the Jesus of Nazareth trilogy as a theologian rather than as pope, saying openly that anyone was free to disagree with it. He played the piano, preferred books to crowds and never hid that the office weighed on him.

In February 2013 he resigned the papacy, citing failing strength — a step no pope had taken in nearly six hundred years, and one that redefined what the office can be. He lived almost ten more years in silence inside the Vatican. He died in 2022.

A message from Benedict XVI is sent to those who love study and formation in the faith, for birthdays, and to teachers and catechists.

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