Pope Benedic t XVI (Joseph Ratzinger)

Joseph Alois Ratzinger was born on 16 April, Holy Saturday, 1927 at Schulstraße 11, at 8:30 in the morning in his parents' home in the state of Bavaria, Germany. He was baptized the same day. He was the third and youngest child of Joseph Ratzinger, Sr., a police officer, and Maria Ratzinger.

Joseph as a young boy The pope's relatives agree that his priestly vocation was apparent from boyhood. At the age of five, Ratzinger was in a group of children who welcomed the visiting Cardinal Archbishop of Munich with flowers. Struck by the Cardinal's distinctive garb, he later announced the very same day that he wanted to be a cardinal.

Following his fourteenth birthday in 1941, Ratzinger was enrolled in the Hitler Youth — membership being legally required after December 1939 — but was an unenthusiastic member and refused to attend meetings. His father was a bitter enemy of Nazism, believing it conflicted with the Catholic faith. In 1941, one of Ratzinger's cousins, a 14-year-old boy with Down syndrome, was killed by the Nazi regime. Two years later, while still in seminary, he was drafted at age 16 into the German anti- aircraft corps. Ratzinger then trained in the German infantry, but a subsequent illness kept him from the usual rigours of military duty. As the Allied front drew closer to his post in 1945, he deserted back to his family's home in Traunstein after his unit had ceased to exist, just as American troops established their headquarters in the Ratzinger household. As a German soldier, he was put in a POW camp but was released a few months later at the end of the War in summer He reentered the seminary, along with his brother Georg, in November of that year.

Pope Benedict Benedict XVI was elected Pope at the age of 78. He is the oldest person to have been elected Pope since Pope Clement XII (1730–40). He had served longer as a cardinal than any Pope since Benedict XIII (1724–30). He is the ninth German Pope.

Even before becoming Pope, Ratzinger was one of the most influential men in the Roman Church and was a close associate of John Paul II. As Dean of the College of Cardinals, he presided over the funeral of John Paul II and over the Mass immediately preceding the 2005 conclave in which he was elected. During the service, he called on the assembled cardinals to hold fast to the doctrine of the faith. Like his predecessor, Benedict XVI maintains the traditional Catholic doctrines on abortion, same-gender marriages etc.

As well as his native German, Benedict XVI fluently speaks Italian, French, English, Spanish and Latin, and has a knowledge of Portuguese. He can read Ancient Greek and biblical Hebrew. He is a member of a large number of academies. He plays the piano and has a preference for Mozart and Bach.

Pope Benedict’s 1 st ride in the Popemobile!