Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger (1927 - 2022)

Born 16 Apr 1927 in Marktl, Bayern, Deutsches Reich

Ancestors

Died 31 Dec 2022 at age 95 in Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, Vatican

Pope Benedict XVI Ratzinger is Notable.

Biography

Pope from 2005 until his abdication in 2013. He is the oldest person to have been elected pope since Pope Clement XII (1730–40). He served longer as a cardinal before becoming Pope than any Pontiff since Benedict XIII (1724–30). He was the ninth German pope, the eighth having been the Dutch-German Pope Adrian VI (1522–23) from Utrecht.

Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger was born on 16 April, Holy Saturday, 1927, at Schulstraße 11, at 8:30 in the morning in his parents' home in Marktl, Bavaria, Germany. He was baptised the same day. He was the third and youngest child of Joseph Ratzinger, Sr., a police officer, and Maria Ratzinger (née Peintner). His mother's family was originally from South Tyrol (now in Italy). Pope Benedict XVI's brother, Georg Ratzinger, a priest and former director of the Regensburger Domspatzen choir, is still alive. His sister, Maria Ratzinger, who never married, managed Cardinal Ratzinger's household until her death in 1991. Their grand-uncle was the German politician Georg Ratzinger. Ratzinger's family, especially his father, bitterly resented the Nazis, and his father's opposition to Nazism resulted in demotions and harassment of the family.

On the announcement of his death Vatican News posted this to FaceBook:

7 years, 10 months and 9 days - That was the length of the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s pontificate.

During his pontificate, Benedict made 24 Apostolic Journeys abroad; participated in 3 World Youth Days and 2 World Meetings of Families; wrote 3 encyclicals, an Apostolic Constitution, 3 Apostolic Exhortations; convoked 4 Synods; created 84 cardinals; proclaimed 45 saints and 855 blesseds (among them Pope John Paul II).

His desire to bring "God back to the centre" was evident in all of his actions.

In his address to the Church in Perth, Western Australia on the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict, ArchbishopTimothy Costelloe states:

With hindsight, of course, we now see that there are many ways to give witness to the mystery of the Christian faith. If Pope John Paul II was a living symbol of the dignity and meaning of human life, even when it is diminished by illness and suffering, Pope Benedict, especially through his resignation, became a living symbol of that humility and detachment which are equally part of the mystery of Christian faith. In imitation of his Lord, Pope Benedict did not cling to his position of importance and of influence. Rather, "he emptied himself", freely surrendered his important and influential position, and retired to the relative obscurity of life in a small monastery in the grounds of the Vatican Gardens. This was not the act of a proud and grasping man, and much less that of a coward. Rather, it was the act of a man of profound integrity who realised, much like St John the Baptist, that he must grow smaller and fade away, so that the person, the mission, and the teaching of Jesus might more clearly be seen as the heart and soul of the life of the Church.

The willingness of Pope Benedict XVI to step aside allowed, in the strange ways of God's providence, for something new to emerge in the life of the Church. ... As his papacy continues to unfold, we might surmise that just as Pope St John Paul II became a living symbol of the mystery of suffering, and as Pope Benedict became a living symbol of the mystery of humility, so Pope Francis is emerging as a living symbol of the great mystery of divine mercy and compassion.

Pope Benedict XVI was interred in the crypt of the St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Vatican Press Office, Deed of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI placed in casket, 5 January 2023, Vatican News

• Wikipedia
• papsthaus.eu
• The M+G+R Foundation, The Interesting Lineage of Joseph A. Ratzinger
• Vatican