Father Kleppner - April 24th 2005
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, the Vatican's chief overseer of doctrine, assumed the name Benedict XVI Tuesday after he was elected pope of the Roman Catholic Church following one of the shortest conclaves in history.
Ratzinger — one of the closest friends and advisers to the late Pope John Paul II — appeared on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to offer his first words and prayers as pontiff. “Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me — a simple, humble worker in God's vineyard of the Lord,” he said in Italian to the excited crowd below. "The fact that the Lord can work and act even with insufficient means consoles me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers.” In the joy of the risen Lord, trusting in his permanent help, we go forward. The Lord will help us, and Mary his very holy mother stands by us," he said. The throngs responded by chanting "Benedict! Benedict!" to the church's 265th pontiff. |
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and International Theological Commission, Dean of the College of Cardinals, was born on 16 April 1927 in Marktl am Inn, Germany. He was ordained a priest on 29 June 1951.
His father, a police officer, came from a traditional family of farmers from Lower Bavaria. He spent his adolescent years in Traunstein, and was forced into the auxiliary anti-aircraft service by conscription in the last months of World War II. He later deserted the German Army. His experience under the Nazi regime convinced him the Church must stand for truth and freedom. 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 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. He then taught dogma and fundamental theology at the higher school of philosophy and theology of Freising, then in Bonn from 1959 to 1969, Münster from 1963 to 1966, Tubinga from 1966 to 1969. From 1969, he was a professor of dogmatic theology and of the history of dogma at the University of Regensburg and Vice President of the same university. Already in 1962 he was well known when, at the age of 35, he became a consultor at Vatican Council II, of the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Joseph Frings. Among his numerous publications, a particular post belongs to the Introduction to Christianity, a collection of university lessons on the profession of apostolic faith, published in 1968; “Dogma and Revelation”, an anthology of essays, sermons and reflections dedicated to the pastoral ministry, published in 1973. Ratzinger was a professor at the University of Bonn from 1959 until 1963, when he moved to the University of Muenster. In 1966, he took a chair in dogmatic theology at the University of Tübingen, where he was a colleague of Hans Küng. In 1969 he returned to Bavaria, to the University of Regensburg. In 1972, he founded the theological journal “Communio” with Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac and others. Communio, now published in German, English, and Spanish editions, has become one of the most important journals of Catholic thought. He also collaborated with Karl Rahner on a number of theological works. In March 1977 Ratzinger was named archbishop of Munich and Freising and in the consistory that June was named a Cardinal by Pope Paul VI. In 1981 Pope John Paul II named Ratzinger prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly known as the Holy Office. He resigned the Munich archdiocese in early 1982, became cardinal-bishop of Velletri-Segni in 1993, vice-dean of the College of Cardinals in 1998, and was elected Dean in 2002. |
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