Pope Benedict XVI _Joseph Ratzinger_

							   Pope
Benedict 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 1945. 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 1st ride in the
       Popemobile!