POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT XVI: The 265th Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church And Other Popes named Benedict

By Dr. Kofi Aninakwa

The name Benedict evokes the extraordinary figure of the great 'patriarch of western monasticism,' St. Benedict of Norcia, who was a co-patron of Europe with Cyril and Methodius. It is derived from the Latin name Benedictus meaning "The Blessed". The progressive expansion of the Benedictine Order he founded exercised an enormous influence on the spread of Christianity throughout the European continent. For this reason, St. Benedict is much venerated in Germany, and especially in Bavaria. He constituted a fundamental point of reference for the unity of Europe and a powerful call to the irrefutable Christian roots of European culture and civilization."
Popes with this name had appealed to St. Benedict for help "to hold firm Christ's central position in our lives. "May he always be first in our thoughts and in all our activities!" Benedict XVI announced that, just as at the beginning of his pontificate, John Paul II had continued the reflections on Christian virtues begun by Pope John Paul I.
Benedict XVI ideally venerated Pontiff, Benedict XV, who guided the Church through the turbulent times of the First World War. He was a true and courageous prophet of peace who struggled strenuously and bravely, first to avoid the drama of war and then to limit its terrible consequences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tablo Publishing
• Release date: May 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9781922439536

Book preview

Pope EMERITUS Benedict XVI

The 265th Supreme Pontiff of the

 Roman Catholic Church

Pope Benedict XVI, was born as Joseph Ratzinger, on April 16, 1927 in Marktl am Inn, Germany. He was ordained a priest on June 29, 1951. His father was a police officer and came from a traditional family of farmers from Lower Bavaria and his mother a hotel cook. He is the youngest of three children, Ratzinger was six years old when the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933; his parents, were staunch Catholics and were hostile to the regime. He entered the seminary in 1939. In 1941 he was compelled to join the Hitler Youth, and in 1943 he was drafted into the German military, serving in an anti-aircraft unit in Bavaria before being sent to Hungary to set tank traps in 1945. He deserted in April of that year and was captured by American forces and held prisoner for a brief period.

Ratzinger earned a reputation as a hard-liner. He condemned liberation theology and suppressed more-liberal theologians such as the Brazilian Leonardo Boff and the American Charles Curran. Despite his reputation, even his harshest critics recognized his intelligence and his ability to discuss controversial matters in an objective and disinterested spirit. He was also recognized for his humility and gentleness and his many talents; he spoke several languages and was an accomplished pianist, with a particular fondness for Mozart. In addition to his native German, Benedict speaks French, Italian and English fluently. He also has an excellent command of Latin and speaks Spanish adequately.Furthermore, he has much knowledge of Portuguese. Although Ratzinger insisted on the superiority of the Catholic faith to other religions, which he deemed insufficient as means to salvation, he was also closely involved in Pope John Paul’s historic efforts to reach out to other faiths, especially Judaism and Islam.

He spent his adolescent years in Traunstein, and was called into the auxiliary anti-aircraft service in the last months of World War II. From 1946 to 1951, the year in which he was ordained a priest and began to teach, he studied philosophy and theology at the University of Munich and at the higher school in Freising. 

In 1953, he obtained a doctorate degree in theology with a thesis entitled: The People and House of God in St. Augustine's Doctrine of the Church. Four years later, he qualified as a university teacher and taught dogma and fundamental theology at the higher school of philosophy and theology of Freising, then in Bonn from 1959 to 1969, in Münster from 1963 to 1966, and in Tubinga from 1966 to 1969.  In 1969, he became a professor of dogmatic theology and of the history of dogma at the University of Regensburg and became the Vice President of the same university.

In 1962, during at the Second Vatican Council at the age of 35, he became a consultor of the Archbishop of Cologne under the leadership of Cardinal Joseph Frings. His numerous publications, include the 'Introduction to Christianity', a collection of university lessons on the profession of apostolic faith, published in 1968 and Dogma and Revelation, an anthology of essays, sermons and reflections dedicated to the pastoral ministry, published in 1973.

In March 1977, Pope Paul VI named Fr. Ratzinger Archbishop of Munich and Freising and on May 28, 1977 he was consecrated---the first diocesan priest in 80 years to take over the pastoral ministry of the large Bavarian diocese. Paul VI elevated him to the College of Cardinals in the consistory of June 27, 1977.

On November 25, 1981, he was nominated by John Paul II to be Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Vice Dean of the College of Cardinals on November 6, 1998. On November 30, 2002, he was elected as Dean of the College of Cardinals. He served as President of the Commission for the Preparation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and after 6 years of work, he presented the New Catechism to the Holy Father in 1992.

Following the death of John Paul II on April 2, 2005, and his funeral on April 8, Cardinal Ratzinger presided over the conclave to elect a new pope as dean of the College of Cardinals.  The conclave opened on April 18 and Cardinal Ratzinger was elected as the 265th Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church on April 19, 2005.  He chose the name Benedict and became Pope Benedict XVI. I chose to call myself Benedict XVI ideally as a link to the venerated Pontiff, Benedict XV, guided the Church through the turbulent times of the First World War. He was a true and courageous prophet of peace who struggled strenuously and bravely, first to avoid the drama of war and then to limit its terrible consequences. In his footsteps I place my ministry, in the service of reconciliation and harmony between peoples, profoundly convinced that the great good of peace is above all a gift of God, a fragile and precious gift to be invoked, safeguarded and constructed, day after day and with everyone's contribution.

The name Benedict also evokes the extraordinary figure of the great 'patriarch of western monasticism,' St. Benedict of Norcia, co-patron of Europe with Cyril and Methodius. The progressive expansion of the Benedictine Order which he founded exercised an enormous influence on the spread of Christianity throughout the European continent. For this reason, St. Benedict is much venerated in Germany, and especially in Bavaria, my own land of origin; he constitutes a fundamental point of reference for the unity of Europe and a powerful call to the irrefutable Christian roots of European culture and civilization. The Pope appealed to St. Benedict for help to hold firm Christ's central position in our lives. May he always be first in our thoughts and in all our activities!

http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2010/06/19/1225881/626664-pope-benedict-xvi-conducts-a-holy-mass-at-st-mary-039-s-cathedral.jpg

Pope Benedict presiding over Mass

Papacy

Ratzinger’s election as pope on the second day of the conclave was something of a surprise because of his status as a leading candidate; front-runners are almost never chosen, a fact reflected in the popular expression, He who enters as a pope leaves as a cardinal. His position with the cardinal electors was apparently secured by his long service to John Paul and his devotion to his predecessor’s teachings and ideals. The homily he delivered as part of the funeral proceedings for the pope also increased his stature. Although he said he had prayed not to be chosen, Ratzinger humbly accepted his election on April 19, 2005, becoming at age 78 the oldest newly elected pope since Clement XII (1730–40). 

Benedict XVI immediately took steps to continue John Paul’s dialogue with Judaism and Islam and with other Christian churches. Further, he declared that one of the goals of his papacy would be to revitalize the Catholic Church in Europe. Benedict XVI also indicated that he would maintain his predecessor’s conservative orthodoxy on matters of sexuality, priestly celibacy, and ecclesiastical organization.

Benedict XVI

Benedict XVI  

During the early years of his papacy, Benedict visited several countries, including Turkey, where he met the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople in the hope of improving relations between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. He issued new guidelines allowing greater use of the Latin mass used before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. He published the encyclicals Deus caritas est (2005; God Is Love) and Spe salvi (2007; Saved by Hope). In 2007 Benedict approved the decisions of the International Theological Commission, an advisory panel to the Vatican, that the traditional teaching of limbo was unduly restrictive and that unbaptized infants could be saved. He made his first trip to the Western Hemisphere, visiting Brazil, where he canonized Father Antonio Galvão (1739–1822), as the first native-born Brazilian saint. He also overturned John Paul’s reform of the papal election process and restored the traditional practice when he declared that the election of a new pope requires a two-thirds majority of the cardinals attending the conclave.

In 2008 Benedict made his first visit as pope to the United States, where he spoke out against clerical sexual abuse and delivered an address at the United Nations. Later that year he addressed the first Catholic-Muslim Forum, a three-day conference of Catholic theologians and Islamic scholars hosted by the Vatican to promote improved understanding between the two religions. Benedict made a controversial decision in January 2009 to revoke the excommunications of four bishops who in 1988 had been consecrated, without papal sanction, by Marcel Lefebvre (1905–91), an ultraconservative French archbishop who was excommunicated with them. In November of that same year, in an act of outreach to conservative Anglicans, Benedict approved an apostolic constitution, or special decree, that allowed Anglican clergymen and laypersons to join the Roman Catholic Church while maintaining some Anglican traditions.

Benedict XVI

Benedict XVI  in Jordan, 2009

In 2010 allegations of sexual and physical abuse by parish priests and in parochial schools in Germany, Ireland, and the United States, brought Benedict XVI and his role in the cases in Germany in particular, under close media scrutiny. In a pastoral letter, Benedict rebuked the bishops of the Irish church for a failure of leadership. The Vatican also denounced as false and calumnious the charge that as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith