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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.
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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
Wroclaw in Poland.
© Copyright 2005 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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