‘Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, of Germany, has been named to lead the Roman Catholic Church as Pope Benedict XVI.

Ratzinger is a rigorously conservative guardian of doctrinal orthodoxy.

He is the 265th pope of the Catholic Church and the first from Germany since the 11th century.

Opinion about him remains deeply divided in Germany, a sharp contrast to John Paul, who was revered in his native Poland.

Ratzinger has clashed with prominent theologians at home, most notably the liberal Hans Kueng, an early sponsor.

Ratzinger, in his autobiography, sensed he was out of step with his fellow Germans as early as the 1960s.

Ratzinger left his home of Tuebingen during student protests in the late 1960s and moved to the more conservative University of Regensburg in his birthplace of Bavaria.

Ratzinger was born in Marktl Am Inn, but his father, a policeman, moved frequently and the family left when he was 2.

He has an older brother, Georg - former director of the renowned Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir.

Ratzinger is an accomplished pianist who loves Mozart.

Ratzinger went through the harrowing years of Nazi rule. He was drafted as an assistant to a Nazi anti-aircraft unit, and also sent to the Austrian-Hungarian border to construct tank barriers. He deserted the Germany army in May 1945.

U.S. soldiers took him prisoner and held him in a POW camp for several weeks. Upon his release, he re-entered the seminary.

Ratzinger was ordained in 1951.’

Read more at The Papal Successor: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

Recent Entries

• Papal center’s spiral costly
• Pope to visit Britain next year
• John Paul’s sainthood centers on young nun
• Priest probes possible miracle in John Paul II saint case
• Pope Benedict chooses 15 new cardinals, and two are from U.S.
• Pope to name new Cardinals soon
• Pope urges caution on new converts to French Catholic group
• Ex-Vatican priest returns to Canada to face child sex charges
• Vatican Calls Turkey Trip a Critical Test
• First Lady Discusses Terrorism With Pope

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 20th, 2005 at 7:45 am and is filed under Conclave, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Succession. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.