Joseph Ratzinger, who died today at the age of 95 , came from a shared family, with a policeman father and a cook mother , who soon left her job to devote herself to the family.
He was born in Marktl am Inn, in the heart of Catholic Bavaria, on April 16, 1927 . A refined theologian, a great scholar, a shy man, he seemed not to be destined for a leadership role of this magnitude. But instead since the days of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he had become one of the cardinal points of reference for the whole Church in the world.
After the first years in Marktl, he spent his adolescence in Traunstein ; in the last months of the Second World War he had been drafted into the anti-aircraft auxiliary services, while he was ex officio a member of the Hitler Youth. A note that cost him many accusations and criticisms , despite being almost normal for the Germany of those difficult years. Having become a priest on June 29, 1951, he then took a doctorate in theology with a thesis on Saint Augustine and was enabled to teach with a work on Saint Bonaventure . He has taught at various universities in Germany: in Freising, Bonn, Muenster, Tübingen and Regensburg.
He was also among the experts working alongside the bishops in the Second Vatican Council . In 1977 Paul VI appointed him archbishop of Monaco and created him cardinal on 27 June . He participated in the conclaves which in '78 elected Pope Luciani and Pope Wojtyla. In 1981 John Paul II appointed him Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He was president of the commission for the preparation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, vice dean and then dean of cardinals . He was elected Pope on April 19, 2005, on the fourth ballot. Finally, on 11 February 2013, the surprise decision to leave the Pontificate.
Master in preaching in an accessible way even on the most complex topics, in almost eight years of pontificate he met millions of people , made dozens of international trips and to Italy, wrote several encyclicals focusing on love and hope. He relaunched and renewed the Church's social doctrine, making it more in keeping with the difficult times of the world, between globalization and the growth of poverty, relativism and the raging ephemeral. His numerous publications will remain in the history of the Church, starting with "Jesus of Nazareth" in several volumes .
Benedict XVI, during his pontificate, has raised the themes of poverty and Africa, young people, ecumenism and the proclamation of the faith to the by now secularized world. It is he who wanted to undertake the fight against pedophilia in the Church . He was still a cardinal (but in a few days he would succeed John Paul II on the throne of Peter) when in 2005, in the meditations of the Via Crucis at the Colosseum, he said bluntly: «How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, should belong completely to him!».
(Unioneonline/D)