Ratzinger celebrates mass near Ruhpolding, Germany (1952)
By: Ruby Russell, Janelle Dumalaon, Sumi Somaskanda & Eric J. Lyman - USA TODAY
Ratzinger entered seminary at the age of 12 and was unable to avoid becoming a reluctant member of the Hitler Youth.
BERLIN — When Joseph Ratzinger was 7, he wrote to the baby Jesus — the Bavarians equivalent of writing to Santa — telling him what he wanted for Christmas.
"Dear Baby Jesus, come quickly down to earth," he wrote. "You will bring joy to children. Also bring me joy."
The young boy who would grow up to become Pope Benedict XVI decades later requested a Mass prayer book with parallel Latin and German texts, green robes to wear in a dress-up game of Mass in which he would take the role of priest, and a picture of the sacred heart of Jesus.
"He was destined to be someone who loves the church above everything," said Brennan Pursell, author of the biography, Benedict of Bavaria: An Intimate Portrait of the Pope and His Homeland. "If there were early signs of anything — exceptional intelligence, maturity of interest and a lack of worldly concerns."
Ratzinger was born in 1927, in the Bavarian village of Marktl am Inn, the youngest child of a policeman and his South Tyrolean wife. Those who have known him say that the studious theologian, widely recognized for bent-toward-academic writings and a sharp intellect, showed early the signs of what he would become, in spite of the obstacles life in Germany under National Socialism would throw his way.
He entered the seminary at the age of 12 and was unable to avoid becoming a reluctant member of the Hitler Youth. In 1943, he was drafted into the anti-aircraft defense and was later captured by American forces and spent several months as a prisoner of war.
He was ordained as a priest in 1951 and quickly established himself as a serious theologian, according to John Allen's biography of the pontiff.
He went on to excel in academia, becoming a professor of theology first at Freising College in the late 1950s, then in Bonn and the University of Muenster before taking a chair in dogmatic theology at the University of Tuebingen. Alienated by the student protests at Tuebingen, he returned to Bavaria, to the University of Regensburg.
"He was sort of reserved, not demanding or dominant, rather friendly — I was blessed to have him as a boss," recalled Siegfried Wiedenhofer, professor emeritus of theology at Johann Goethe University in Frankfurt. Wiedenhofer was a student of Ratzinger's at Tübingen and Regensburg University, as well as his research assistant from 1967 to 1977. "He had a very unpretentious way about him, a reserved type who didn't want the limelight."
But it was a very different period of political unrest in Europe which some say had the greatest impact on Ratzinger's theological development.
Reverend Monsignor Kevin Irwin, professor of liturgical studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, says that as professor at the University of Tuebingen in Germany, Ratzinger was "irrevocably marked" by the waves of student protest that swept much of the globe in 1968 — the same year that Pope Paul VI issued his Humanae Vitae.
"From that time on he's been very keen to be clear about what the Catholic Church teaches and what we do not teach," Irwin said. "1968 was the year that Pope Paul issued his encyclical on birth control and that caused a great deal of protests and dissent and I believe that [Benedict's] understanding was that once you allow dissent you are not being clear about what you believe and for him what we believe is obviously what is true."
Ratzinger was among the last cardinals named by Pope Paul VI in 1977, and quickly became a key adviser to John Paul II, who became pope in 1978 after the 33-day papacy of John Paul I. He was named as the head of the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith — the office formerly known as the Grand Inquisitor, the church's version of the FBI — in 1981, and his influence as a John Paul confident grew from there, culminating with his becoming the dean of the College of Cardinals, presiding over John Paul's funeral and unofficially running the church during the period of the sede vacante, when there is no pope.
Ratzinger was elected pope on the fourth ballot of the conclave. He later said he had been planning a peaceful retirement after the new pope was elected, and said that during the conclave, when it appeared he was gaining votes, that he "prayed to God, 'please don't do this to me' … Evidently, he didn't listen."
"He seemed to be uncomfortable with the celebrity aspects of the papacy that came into prominence with John Paul," said Mathew Schmalz, a theologian and professor at Holy Cross. "I think everyone recognizes, whether they agreed with him or disagreed with him in terms of doctrinal positions, that he was who he was. That he wasn't trying to be a different person as pope than he was as a cardinal, as a bishop, and as a priest."
Despite his reluctance, he took to the role with great vigor. Selecting the name Benedict in part as a homage to Pope Benedict XV, who guided the church through World War I, and decrying what he saw as "Cafeteria Catholicism" — in which churchgoers obey only the parts of the Church canon they find appealing — within days of being named pope.
"He was very concerned about in the Western world religion being understood as a kind of private option as opposed to something that demands a total commitment and has a relevance for all aspects of human life," said Schmalz. "His fundamental point was that the entirety of Catholic doctrine is interlinked."
A great lover of music who is said to obtain great pleasure from playing Mozart and Beethoven on the piano, Benedict's aesthetic sensibilities were apparent in his attachment to the traditional vestments of the papacy, reviving items like the striking red shoes and Santa-Claus-like camauro hat that had fallen out of use for centuries.
Despite his reserved nature, Benedict XVI will also be remembered for his stirring public addresses. George Weigel calls him, "one of the finest catechists and preachers of our time" while Pursell calls his weekly catechisms on the saints and writers of the gospel "sensational."
Those who observe the pope closely say that he never forgot his roots as a theologian, first and foremost.
"When John Paul II asked him to become the prefect of Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, one of Ratzinger's conditions was, as long as I can keep publishing as a private theologian, and John Paul II said, no problem," said Pursell.
Sometimes a controversial pope, longtime Vatican observers say that Benedict will be also remembered for his outreach to other faiths. He is also notable for his handling of many of the prickly issues not directly addressed by his predecessor Pope John Paul II — most notably the church sex abuse crisis, which he directly addressed multiple times, calling it a "scourge" but warning it is not a problem confined to the church.
"Change is a part of the church rhetoric, and that was especially the case with Pope Benedict," said Alberto Melloni, professor of Christian History, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. "The first German pope since the 16th century, the first pope to have headed the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith since the 16th century, and the oldest man to be elected pope since the 18th century. And yet what he will be known for is the way he reformed the church from the inside."
Timothy Radcliffe, a priest and frequent commentator on church affairs, called Benedict a natural teacher.
"When I met John Paul, which I did from time to time, I never said to myself, 'My God, I'm talking to the pope,' because he made people feel naturally comfortable — he enjoyed being on center stage," said Radcliffe said. "But Pope Benedict [didn't] want to be on center stage. He was always self-effacing. John Paul was like a philosopher who intuitively understood the nature of the human being, while Benedict loves the wisdom of theology — he was always a great teacher."
In Benedict, according to Vatican expert Giancarlo Zizzola, the church had an effective leader and administrator who also turned out to be a wonderful Christian.
"Pope Benedict was a strong pope and an inspiring man of faith."
Ratzinger entered seminary at the age of 12 and was unable to avoid becoming a reluctant member of the Hitler Youth.
BERLIN — When Joseph Ratzinger was 7, he wrote to the baby Jesus — the Bavarians equivalent of writing to Santa — telling him what he wanted for Christmas.
"Dear Baby Jesus, come quickly down to earth," he wrote. "You will bring joy to children. Also bring me joy."
The young boy who would grow up to become Pope Benedict XVI decades later requested a Mass prayer book with parallel Latin and German texts, green robes to wear in a dress-up game of Mass in which he would take the role of priest, and a picture of the sacred heart of Jesus.
"He was destined to be someone who loves the church above everything," said Brennan Pursell, author of the biography, Benedict of Bavaria: An Intimate Portrait of the Pope and His Homeland. "If there were early signs of anything — exceptional intelligence, maturity of interest and a lack of worldly concerns."
Ratzinger was born in 1927, in the Bavarian village of Marktl am Inn, the youngest child of a policeman and his South Tyrolean wife. Those who have known him say that the studious theologian, widely recognized for bent-toward-academic writings and a sharp intellect, showed early the signs of what he would become, in spite of the obstacles life in Germany under National Socialism would throw his way.
He entered the seminary at the age of 12 and was unable to avoid becoming a reluctant member of the Hitler Youth. In 1943, he was drafted into the anti-aircraft defense and was later captured by American forces and spent several months as a prisoner of war.
He was ordained as a priest in 1951 and quickly established himself as a serious theologian, according to John Allen's biography of the pontiff.
He went on to excel in academia, becoming a professor of theology first at Freising College in the late 1950s, then in Bonn and the University of Muenster before taking a chair in dogmatic theology at the University of Tuebingen. Alienated by the student protests at Tuebingen, he returned to Bavaria, to the University of Regensburg.
"He was sort of reserved, not demanding or dominant, rather friendly — I was blessed to have him as a boss," recalled Siegfried Wiedenhofer, professor emeritus of theology at Johann Goethe University in Frankfurt. Wiedenhofer was a student of Ratzinger's at Tübingen and Regensburg University, as well as his research assistant from 1967 to 1977. "He had a very unpretentious way about him, a reserved type who didn't want the limelight."
But it was a very different period of political unrest in Europe which some say had the greatest impact on Ratzinger's theological development.
Reverend Monsignor Kevin Irwin, professor of liturgical studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, says that as professor at the University of Tuebingen in Germany, Ratzinger was "irrevocably marked" by the waves of student protest that swept much of the globe in 1968 — the same year that Pope Paul VI issued his Humanae Vitae.
"From that time on he's been very keen to be clear about what the Catholic Church teaches and what we do not teach," Irwin said. "1968 was the year that Pope Paul issued his encyclical on birth control and that caused a great deal of protests and dissent and I believe that [Benedict's] understanding was that once you allow dissent you are not being clear about what you believe and for him what we believe is obviously what is true."
Ratzinger was among the last cardinals named by Pope Paul VI in 1977, and quickly became a key adviser to John Paul II, who became pope in 1978 after the 33-day papacy of John Paul I. He was named as the head of the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith — the office formerly known as the Grand Inquisitor, the church's version of the FBI — in 1981, and his influence as a John Paul confident grew from there, culminating with his becoming the dean of the College of Cardinals, presiding over John Paul's funeral and unofficially running the church during the period of the sede vacante, when there is no pope.
Ratzinger was elected pope on the fourth ballot of the conclave. He later said he had been planning a peaceful retirement after the new pope was elected, and said that during the conclave, when it appeared he was gaining votes, that he "prayed to God, 'please don't do this to me' … Evidently, he didn't listen."
"He seemed to be uncomfortable with the celebrity aspects of the papacy that came into prominence with John Paul," said Mathew Schmalz, a theologian and professor at Holy Cross. "I think everyone recognizes, whether they agreed with him or disagreed with him in terms of doctrinal positions, that he was who he was. That he wasn't trying to be a different person as pope than he was as a cardinal, as a bishop, and as a priest."
Despite his reluctance, he took to the role with great vigor. Selecting the name Benedict in part as a homage to Pope Benedict XV, who guided the church through World War I, and decrying what he saw as "Cafeteria Catholicism" — in which churchgoers obey only the parts of the Church canon they find appealing — within days of being named pope.
"He was very concerned about in the Western world religion being understood as a kind of private option as opposed to something that demands a total commitment and has a relevance for all aspects of human life," said Schmalz. "His fundamental point was that the entirety of Catholic doctrine is interlinked."
A great lover of music who is said to obtain great pleasure from playing Mozart and Beethoven on the piano, Benedict's aesthetic sensibilities were apparent in his attachment to the traditional vestments of the papacy, reviving items like the striking red shoes and Santa-Claus-like camauro hat that had fallen out of use for centuries.
Despite his reserved nature, Benedict XVI will also be remembered for his stirring public addresses. George Weigel calls him, "one of the finest catechists and preachers of our time" while Pursell calls his weekly catechisms on the saints and writers of the gospel "sensational."
Those who observe the pope closely say that he never forgot his roots as a theologian, first and foremost.
"When John Paul II asked him to become the prefect of Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, one of Ratzinger's conditions was, as long as I can keep publishing as a private theologian, and John Paul II said, no problem," said Pursell.
Sometimes a controversial pope, longtime Vatican observers say that Benedict will be also remembered for his outreach to other faiths. He is also notable for his handling of many of the prickly issues not directly addressed by his predecessor Pope John Paul II — most notably the church sex abuse crisis, which he directly addressed multiple times, calling it a "scourge" but warning it is not a problem confined to the church.
"Change is a part of the church rhetoric, and that was especially the case with Pope Benedict," said Alberto Melloni, professor of Christian History, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. "The first German pope since the 16th century, the first pope to have headed the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith since the 16th century, and the oldest man to be elected pope since the 18th century. And yet what he will be known for is the way he reformed the church from the inside."
Timothy Radcliffe, a priest and frequent commentator on church affairs, called Benedict a natural teacher.
"When I met John Paul, which I did from time to time, I never said to myself, 'My God, I'm talking to the pope,' because he made people feel naturally comfortable — he enjoyed being on center stage," said Radcliffe said. "But Pope Benedict [didn't] want to be on center stage. He was always self-effacing. John Paul was like a philosopher who intuitively understood the nature of the human being, while Benedict loves the wisdom of theology — he was always a great teacher."
In Benedict, according to Vatican expert Giancarlo Zizzola, the church had an effective leader and administrator who also turned out to be a wonderful Christian.
"Pope Benedict was a strong pope and an inspiring man of faith."
Pope Benedict XVI embraces Brazilian children in May 2007
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