Benedict biography joseph pope ratzinger xvi
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Early life of Pope Benedict XVI
The early life of Pope Benedict XVI concerns the period from his birth in 1927 through the completion of his education and ordination in 1951.
Background and childhood (1927–1943)
[edit]Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger was born on 16 April (Holy Saturday) 1927 at 11 Schulstrasse, his parents' home in Marktl am Inn, Bavaria and baptised on the same day. He was the third and youngest child of Joseph Ratzinger Sr. (1877–1959), a police officer, and his wife, Maria (née Peintner) (1884–1963), whose family were from South Tyrol. His father served in both the Bavarian State Police (Landespolizei) and the German national Regular Police (Ordnungspolizei) before retiring in 1937 to the town of Traunstein. The Sunday Times described the older Ratzinger as "an anti-Nazi whose attempts to rein in Hitler's Brown Shirts forced the family to move several times."[1] According to the International Herald Tribune, these relocations were directly related to J
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Pope Benedict XVI
(1927-2022)
Who Is Pope Benedict XVI?
Pope Benedict XVI grew up under war reparations from World War I, as the Nazi regime was gaining power. He was briefly a member of the Hitler Youth in his early teens after membership became mandatory in 1941. He turned to theological studies after the war, helping found the influential journal Communio. He was elevated to the papacy in 2005. In February 2013, Benedict XVI shocked Catholic leadership and faithful alike by resigning from his position as pope, the first to do so in six centuries. He lived in a monastery on Vatican grounds until his death on December 31, 2022 at the age of 95.
Early Life
Pope Benedict XVI was born Joseph Ratzinger on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, Bavaria, Germany, the youngest of three children. His father was a policeman and his mother a hotel cook (before she married). His family moved frequently among villages in rural Bavaria, a deeply Roman Catholic region in Germany, as the Na
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Benedict XVI - Biography
Joseph Ratzinger was born in Marktl am Inn (on the Inn River), Germany, 16 April 1927, Holy Saturday, and was the first person baptized in the Easter Water blessed at the Easter Vigil. His father, a policeman, from a family of farmers in Lower Baveria, was frequently transferred. In 1929, young Joseph's family moved to Tittmoning, a small town on the Salzach River, on the Austrian border.
Journey to the Priesthood
In 1932 his father's outspoken criticism of the Nazis required the family to relocate to Auschau am Inn, at the foot of the Alps. His father retired in 1937, and his family moved to Hufschlag, outside of Traunstein. There Joseph began studying classical languages at the local gymnasium or high school. In 1939, he entered the minor seminary in Traunstein, his first step toward the priesthood.
World War II forced a postponement of his studies, until 1945, when he re-entered the seminary with his brother Georg. In 1947, he entered the Herzog