The History of Joseph Ratzinger a.k.a. Pope Benedict XVI

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Joseph Ratzinger was born on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, Germany. His father and mother were both practicing Catholics and hard workers. Joseph’s father was employed as a German police officer and his mother was a cook. Joseph grew up loving to study and be outdoors.
During childhood, Joseph and his family changed homes often because of political unrest in the German government after World War I. The family eventually ended up living in Traunstein, Germany, where Joseph still considers his hometown today. While in Traunstein, Joseph entered Saint Michael‘s seminary; however, he was only allowed to stay for two years because Hitler claimed the seminary as a military hospital. Joseph, along with all of the other seminary members were forced to join the Hitler Youth movement. The Hitler Youth movement’s goal was to prepare young men for the Nazi Party. Joseph and his family rejected Hitler and Nazism, but tolerated the powerful movement in fear of dying. Joseph and his brothers were eventually drafted into the German army.
While in the army, Joseph realized how utterly he disliked inequality. Nazi practices, such as slave labor and mass executions, greatly disturbed Joseph. “Hungarian Jews were being moved like ‘cattle in trains’ on their way to concentration camps,” Joseph declared in 1944 (33). Such evil military encounters reminded Joseph to always put his beloved Catholic faith first.
While in the army, Joseph continued to hold on to his love of attaining knowledge. When possible, Joseph read and studied books. Joseph was also very thankful when he obtained time for peaceful silence in the wilderness. During this time, Joseph would pray, fish, or simply observe God’s wonderful world.
In 1945, at the end of World War II...

... middle of paper ...

...y of participating in the Conclave of the Sacred College.
After nineteen days in Conclave, Cardinal Joseph was selected as the Pope of the Catholic Church. He chose the Papal name of Pope Benedict XVI. As pope, Benedict continued to live a simple, prayerful life like he did as prefect of the CDF. However, Benedict was faced with many scandals, mostly from the Islamic Religion. He was very peaceful about these scandals and resolved them by apologizing and promising better things in the future.
On February 28, 2013, Pope Benedict decided to resign from the position of Pope “because of lack of strength of mind and body due to age” (88). Because of his resignation, he is now called Pope emeritus Benedict XVI. He currently lives in the newly restored Mater Ecclesiae monastery. He still lives a very holy life. Pope emeritus Benedict XVI was succeeded by Pope Francis.

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