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Pope Benedict XVI

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                   Benedict XVI
    Birth name  Joseph Alois Ratzinger
   Papacy began April 19, 2005
   Papacy ended Incumbent
   Predecessor  John Paul II
    Successor   Incumbent
       Born     April 16, 1927 (age 79)
                Marktl am Inn, Bavaria, Germany
   Other Popes named Benedict
   Papal Arms of Pope Benedict XVI. The papal tiara was replaced with a
   bishop's mitre, and pallium of the Pope was added beneath the coat of
   arms.
   Enlarge
   Papal Arms of Pope Benedict XVI. The papal tiara was replaced with a
   bishop's mitre, and pallium of the Pope was added beneath the coat of
   arms.
             Styles of
   Pope Benedict XVI
   Reference style  His Holiness
   Spoken style     Your Holiness
   Religious style  Holy Father
   Posthumous style NA

   Pope Benedict XVI (Latin: Benedictus PP. XVI; Italian: Benedetto XVI),
   born Joseph Alois Ratzinger on April 16, 1927 in Marktl am Inn,
   Bavaria, Germany) is the 265th and reigning Pope of the Roman Catholic
   Church, and as such, Sovereign of the Vatican City State. He was
   elected on April 19, 2005 in a papal conclave, celebrated his Papal
   Inauguration Mass on April 24, 2005, and took possession of his
   cathedral, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, on May 7, 2005. Pope
   Benedict XVI has both German and Vatican citizenship. He succeeded Pope
   John Paul II, who died on April 2, 2005.

   One of the best-known theologians since the 1960s and a prolific
   author, Benedict XVI is viewed as a defender of traditional Catholic
   doctrine and values and of their importance in the survival of Western
   civilization. He served as a professor at various German universities,
   and was a theological consultant at the Second Vatican Council before
   becoming Archbishop of Munich and Freising and Cardinal. At the time of
   his election as Pope, Benedict had been Prefect of the Congregation for
   the Doctrine of the Faith (curial heads lose their positions upon the
   death of a pope) and was Dean of the College of Cardinals.

   During his papacy, Benedict XVI has emphasized what he sees as a need
   for Europe to return to fundamental Christian values in response to
   increasing de- Christianisation and secularisation in many developed
   countries. For this reason, he has identified relativism's denial of
   objective truth—and more particularly, the denial of moral truths—as
   the central problem of the 21st century. He has taught about the
   importance for the Catholic Church and for humanity of contemplating
   God's salvific love and has reaffirmed the "importance of prayer in the
   face of the activism and the growing secularism of many Christians
   engaged in charitable work."

Overview

   Pope Benedict XVI at a private audience on January 20, 2006.
   Enlarge
   Pope Benedict XVI at a private audience on January 20, 2006.

   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, the eighth having been the
   Dutch-German Pope Adrian VI (1522–23) from Utrecht. The last Pope named
   Benedict was Benedict XV, an Italian who reigned from 1914 to 1922,
   during World War I (1914–18).

   Born in 1927 in Marktl am Inn, Bavaria, Germany, Benedict XVI had a
   distinguished career as a university theologian before being appointed
   Archbishop of Munich and Freising by Pope Paul VI (1963–78). Shortly
   afterwards, he was made a cardinal in the consistory of June 27, 1977.
   He was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
   Faith by Pope John Paul II in 1981 and was also assigned the honorific
   title of the cardinal bishop of the suburbicarian diocese of Velletri-
   Segni on April 5, 1993. In 1998, he was elected sub-dean of the College
   of Cardinals. And on November 30, 2002, he was elected dean, taking, as
   is customary, the title of Cardinal bishop of the suburbicarian diocese
   of Ostia. He was the first Dean of the College elected Pope since Paul
   IV (1555–59) and the first cardinal bishop elected Pope since Pius VIII
   (1829–30).

   Before becoming Pope, Benedict XVI was one of the most influential men
   in the Roman Curia, and was a close associate of the late 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. He was the public
   face of the church in the sede vacante period, although, technically,
   he ranked below the camerlengo in administrative authority during that
   time. Like his predecessor, Benedict XVI maintains the traditional
   Catholic doctrines on artificial birth control, abortion, and
   homosexuality while promoting Catholic social teaching.

   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, such as the French Académie des sciences
   morales et politiques. He plays the piano and has a preference for
   Mozart and Beethoven.

Early life (1927–1951)

   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 Marktl
   am Inn, 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 (née Peintner). His mother's family was originally
   from South Tyrol. 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
   great-uncle was the German politician Georg Ratzinger.

   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 (a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party) -
   membership being legally required after December 1936. -, 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 child with Down syndrome,
   was killed by the Nazi regime in its campaign of eugenics. In 1943
   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 precluded him from the usual rigors of military
   duty. As the Allied front drew closer to his post in 1945, he returned
   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
   re-entered the seminary, along with his brother Georg, in November of
   that year.

   Following repatriation in 1945, the two brothers entered Saint Michael
   Seminary in Traunstein, later studying at the Ducal Georgianum
   (Herzogliches Georgianum) of the Ludwig-Maximilian University in
   Munich. They were both ordained on June 29, 1951 by Michael Cardinal
   von Faulhaber of Munich. Joseph Ratzinger's dissertation (1953) was on
   St. Augustine and was entitled "The People and the House of God in
   Augustine's Doctrine of the Church". His Habilitation (which qualified
   him for a professorship) was on Bonaventure. It was completed in 1957
   and he became a professor of Freising College in 1958.

Pre-papal career

Academic career (1951–1977)

   Cardinal Ratzinger offers an oath of submission at the September, 1978
   papal inauguration of John Paul I.
   Enlarge
   Cardinal Ratzinger offers an oath of submission at the September, 1978
   papal inauguration of John Paul I.

   Ratzinger became a professor at the University of Bonn in 1959; his
   inaugural lecture was on "The God of Faith and the God of Philosophy."
   In 1963, he moved to the University of Münster, where his inaugural
   lecture was given in a packed lecture hall, as he was already well
   known as a theologian.

   In 1966, Joseph Ratzinger was appointed to a chair in dogmatic theology
   at the University of Tübingen, where he was a colleague of Hans Küng.
   In his 1968 book Introduction to Christianity, he wrote that the pope
   has a duty to hear differing voices within the Church before making a
   decision, and he downplayed the centrality of the papacy. He also wrote
   that the Church of the time was too centralized, rule-bound and overly
   controlled from Rome. During this time, he distanced himself from the
   atmosphere of Tübingen and the Marxist leanings of the student movement
   of the 1960s that quickly radicalised, in Germany, in the years 1967
   and 1968, culminating in a series of disturbances and riots in April
   and May 1968. Ratzinger came increasingly to see these and associated
   developments (such as decreasing respect for authority among his
   students and the rise of the German gay rights movement) as connected
   to a departure from traditional Catholic teachings. Despite his
   reformist bent, his views increasingly came to contrast with the
   liberal ideas gaining currency in theological circles. During his years
   at the Second Vatican Council and Tübingen University, professor Joseph
   Ratzinger publicized articles in the reformist theological journal
   Concilium, though he increasingly chose less reformist themes than
   other contributors to the magazine such as Hans Küng and Edward
   Schillebeeckx.

   In 1969, he returned to Bavaria, to the University of Regensburg, a
   less reformist academic environment. He founded the theological journal
   Communio, with Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac, Walter Kasper
   and others, in 1972. Communio, now published in seventeen languages,
   including German, English and Spanish, has become a prominent journal
   of contemporary Catholic theological thought. Until his election as
   Pope, he remained one of the journal's most prolific contributors.

Second Vatican Council (1962–1965)

   During this period, Ratzinger participated in the Second Vatican
   Council (1962–1965). Ratzinger served as a peritus or theological
   consultant to Josef Cardinal Frings of Cologne, Germany, and has
   continued to defend the council, including Nostra Aetate, the document
   on respect of other religions, ecumenism and the declaration of the
   right to freedom of religion. (Later, as the Prefect for the
   Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger most clearly
   spelled out the Catholic Church's position on other religions in the
   document Dominus Iesus (2000) which also talks about the proper way to
   engage in ecumenical dialogue). He was viewed during the time of the
   Council as a reformer, cooperating with radical Modernist theologians
   like Hans Küng and Edward Schillebeeckx. Ratzinger became an admirer of
   Karl Rahner, a well-known academic theologian of the Nouvelle Théologie
   and a proponent of church reform.

Cardinal and Archbishop of Munich and Freising (1977–1982)

   Palais Holnstein in Munich, the residence of Benedict as Archbishop of
   Munich and Freising
   Enlarge
   Palais Holnstein in Munich, the residence of Benedict as Archbishop of
   Munich and Freising

   In March 1977, Ratzinger was appointed Archbishop of Munich and
   Freising. He took as his episcopal motto Cooperatores Veritatis
   (Co-workers of the Truth) from 3 John 8, a choice he comments upon in
   his autobiographical work, Milestones.

   In the consistory of June 1977, he was named Cardinal-Priest of S.
   Marie Consolatrice al Tiburtino by Pope Paul VI. By the time of the
   2005 Conclave, he was one of only fourteen remaining cardinals
   appointed by Paul VI, and one of only three of those under the age of
   80. Of these, only he and William Cardinal Baum took part in the
   Conclave.

Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1981–2005)

   On November 25, 1981, Pope John Paul II named Ratzinger Prefect of the
   Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly known as the Holy
   Office, the historical Inquisition. Consequently, he resigned his post
   at Munich in early 1982. He was promoted within the College of
   Cardinals to become Cardinal Bishop of Velletri-Segni in 1993, was made
   the College's vice-dean in 1998 and dean in 2002.

   In office, Ratzinger fulfilled his institutional role, defending and
   reaffirming official Catholic doctrine, including teaching on topics
   such as birth control, homosexuality, and inter-religious dialogue.
   During his period in office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
   Faith took disciplinary measures against some outspoken liberation
   theologians in Latin America and Jesuit priest Anthony de Mello.

Papacy

Election to the papacy

Prediction

   On January 2, 2005, Time magazine quoted unnamed Vatican sources as
   saying that Ratzinger was a frontrunner to succeed John Paul II should
   the pope die or become too ill to continue as pope. On the death of
   John Paul II, the Financial Times gave the odds of Ratzinger becoming
   pope as 7–1, the lead position, but close to his rivals on the liberal
   wing of the church. In April 2005, before his election as pope, he was
   identified as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by
   Time magazine. While Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of
   the Faith, Ratzinger repeatedly stated he would like to retire to a
   Bavarian village and dedicate himself to writing books, but prior to
   the death of John Paul II, he told friends he was "ready to accept any
   charge God placed on him".

   Piers Paul Read wrote in The Spectator on March 5, 2005:


   Pope Benedict XVI

     There can be little doubt that his courageous promotion of orthodox
    Catholic teaching has earned him the respect of his fellow cardinals
   throughout the world. He is patently holy, highly intelligent and sees
    clearly what is at stake. Indeed, for those who blame the decline of
   Catholic practice in the developed world precisely on the propensity of
      many European bishops to hide their heads in the sand, a pope who
      confronts it may be just what is required. Ratzinger is no longer
     young—he is 78 years old: but Angelo Roncalli, who revolutionized
    Catholicism by calling the Second Vatican Council was almost the same
      age (76) when he became pope as John XXIII. As Jeff Israely, the
    correspondent of Time, was told by a Vatican insider last month, "The
                    Ratzinger solution is definitely on.


   Pope Benedict XVI

   Though Ratzinger was increasingly considered the front runner by much
   of the international media, others maintained that his election was far
   from certain since very few papal predictions in modern history had
   come true. The elections of both John Paul II and his predecessor, John
   Paul I had been rather unexpected. Despite being the favourite (or
   perhaps because he was the favourite), it was a surprise to many that
   he was actually elected.

Election

   On April 19, 2005, Cardinal Ratzinger was elected as the successor to
   Pope John Paul II on the second day of the papal conclave after four
   ballots. Cardinal Ratzinger had hoped to retire peacefully and said
   that "At a certain point, I prayed to God 'please don't do this to
   me'...Evidently, this time He didn't listen to me." Coincidentally,
   April 19 is the feast of St. Leo IX, the most important German pope of
   the Middle Ages, known for instituting major reforms during his
   pontificate.

   Before his first appearance at the balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica
   after becoming pope, he was announced by Jorge Cardinal Medina Estévez,
   protodeacon of the College of Cardinals. Cardinal Medina Estévez first
   addressed the massive crowd as "dear(est) brothers and sisters" in
   Italian, Spanish, French, German and English, with each language
   receiving cheers from the international crowd, before continuing with
   the traditional Habemus Papam announcement in Latin.

   At the balcony, Benedict's first words to the crowd, given in Italian
   before he gave the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing in Latin, were:


   Pope Benedict XVI

      Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the
   Cardinals have elected me, a simple, humble labourer in the vineyard of
   the Lord. The fact that the Lord knows how to work and to act even with
   insufficient instruments comforts me, and above all I entrust myself to
   your prayers. In the joy of the Risen Lord, confident of his unfailing
    help, let us move forward. The Lord will help us, and Mary, His Most
                Holy Mother, will be on our side. Thank you.


   Pope Benedict XVI

   Pope Benedict then gave the blessing to the people.

   On April 24, he was inaugurated in St. Peters, formally becoming the
   265th pope by the official Vatican reckoning. Then, on May 7, he was
   enthroned in a mass at the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

Health

   In the early 1990s, Ratzinger suffered a stroke, which slightly
   impaired his eyesight temporarily. This was known to the Conclave that
   elected him Pope. In May 2005, the Vatican revealed that he had
   subsequently suffered another mild stroke; it did not reveal when,
   other than that it had occurred between 2003 and 2005. France's
   Philippe Cardinal Barbarin further revealed that since the first
   stroke, Ratzinger had been suffering from a heart condition as a result
   of his age, and is currently on medication. Because of these
   age-related health problems, and in order to have free time to write,
   he had hoped to retire, and submitted his resignation twice, but had
   continued at his post in obedience to the wishes of Pope John Paul II.
   It is also notable that he appears to be in far better health than his
   predecessor was at the age of 79.

Choice of name

   The choice of the regnal name Benedict, which in Latin means "the
   blessed," is significant. Benedict XVI used his first General Audience
   in St. Peter's Square, on April 27, 2005, to explain to the world why
   he chose the name:


   Pope Benedict XVI

   Filled with sentiments of awe and thanksgiving, I wish to speak of why
    I chose the name Benedict. Firstly, I remember Pope Benedict XV, that
    courageous prophet of peace, who guided the Church through turbulent
    times of war. In his footsteps I place my ministry in the service of
     reconciliation and harmony between peoples. Additionally, I recall
    Saint Benedict of Nursia, co- patron of Europe, whose life evokes the
   Christian roots of Europe. I ask him to help us all to hold firm to the
     centrality of Christ in our Christian life: May Christ always take
                  first place in our thoughts and actions!


   Pope Benedict XVI

Tone of papacy

   Pope Benedict XVI's first trip in the Pope's car
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   Pope Benedict XVI's first trip in the Pope's car

   Pope Benedict has confounded the expectations of many in his papacy by
   his gentle public persona and his promise to listen.

   During his inaugural Mass, the previous custom of every cardinal
   submitting to the Pope was replaced by having twelve people, including
   cardinals, clergy, religious, a married couple and their child, and
   newly confirmed people, submit to him. (The cardinals had formally
   sworn their obedience upon his election.)

   He has begun using an open-topped papal automobile, saying that he
   wanted to be closer to the people.

   Benedict's coat of arms has officially omitted the papal tiara, which
   traditionally appears in the background to designate the Pope's
   position, and replaced it with a simple mitre. However, some papal
   documents since his inauguration have included with the papal tiara.
   Since it is the shield and not the background which is unique to the
   individual Pope, various backgrounds are possible (though rarely used)
   for even a single shield.

   Pope Benedict XVI has been using papal clothing which had previously
   fallen into disuse. During his installment address, he spoke at length
   about the significance of the pallium and has returned to an ancient
   version, an Eastern design, used by first millennium pontiffs. He has
   also worn the red satin mozzetta and its ermine-trimmed winter version
   that has not been seen since Pope Paul VI. His house cassock ( simar or
   cassock with shoulder cape) also includes the upper half-sleeves
   discontinued for all other clerics by the authority of Paul VI's motu
   proprio "Pontificalis Domus" of 1968. Pope Benedict XVI has also
   continued the use of the red papal outdoor cloak. On December 21, 2005,
   the pope began wearing the camauro for his general audiences; the
   traditional papal hat had not been seen since the pontificate of Pope
   John XXIII (1958 - 1963). On September 6, 2006 the pope wore the red
   capello Romano (also called a saturno). Rarely used by John Paul II, it
   was more widely worn by his predecessors.

   One item of clothing that Benedict has not worn to date is the papal
   tiara. Like his two immediate predecessors, Benedict chose not to be
   crowned with the tiara during his Inauguration Mass, nor has he worn it
   since that time. Other traditional items unused by the pope include the
   vestmental gloves, known as gauntlets.

Pastoral activity

   Pope Benedict has continued the tradition of his predecessor John Paul
   II and baptised several infants in the Sistine Chapel at the beginning
   of 2006, in his pastoral role as Bishop of Rome.

Beatifications

   On May 9, 2005, Benedict XVI began the beatification process for his
   predecessor, Pope John Paul II. Normally, five years must pass after a
   person's death before the beatification process can begin. However, in
   an audience with Pope Benedict, Camillo Cardinal Ruini, Vicar General
   of the Diocese of Rome and the official responsible for promoting the
   cause for canonization of any person who dies within that diocese,
   cited "exceptional circumstances" which suggested that the waiting
   period could be waived. The "exceptional circumstances" apparently
   refer to the cries of "Santo subito!" ("Saint now!") during the late
   pontiff's funeral (saints can be declared by popular acclaim, although
   this is rare). Therefore, the Pope waived the five year rule "so that
   the cause of Beatification and Canonization of the same Servant of God
   can begin immediately." The decision was announced on May 13, 2005, the
   Feast of Our Lady of Fatima and the 24th anniversary of the attempt on
   John Paul II's life. John Paul II often credited Our Lady of Fatima for
   preserving him on that day. Cardinal Ruini inaugurated the diocesan
   phase of the cause for beatification in the Lateran Basilica on June
   28, 2005.

   The first beatification under the new Pope was celebrated on May 14,
   2005, by José Cardinal Saraiva Martins. The new Blesseds were Mother
   Marianne Cope and Mother Ascensión Nicol Goñi. Mariano de la Mata is
   reported to be beatified in November 2006, and Fr. Basil Moreau
   scheduled to be beatified by next year.

   Unlike his predecessor, Benedict XVI delegated the beatification
   liturgical service to a Cardinal. On September 29, 2005, the
   Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued a communiqué announcing
   that henceforth beatifications would be celebrated by a representative
   of the Pope, usually the Prefect of that Congregation.

Canonizations

   Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his first Canonizations on October 23,
   2005 in St. Peter's Square when he canonized Josef Bilczewski, Alberto
   Hurtado SJ, Zygmunt Gorazdowski, Gaetano Catanoso, and Felice da
   Nicosia. The canonizations were part of a Mass that marked the
   conclusion of the Synod of Bishops and the Year of the Eucharist. Pope
   Benedict XVI canonized Bishop Rafael Guizar Valencia, Mother Theodore
   Guerin, Filippo Smaldone, and Rosa Venerini on October 15, 2006.

The Curia

Appointments

   Since their terms had ended on the death of the previous pope, Benedict
   reappointed after his election all former senior officers of the Roman
   Curia, though most only in a provisional manner. This assured an easy
   transition into a new pontificate.

   Benedict's first major new appointment was that of his successor as
   Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. On May 13,
   2005, Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal William Levada, Archbishop of San
   Francisco, of the United States of America. Levada participated in the
   drafting of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, although his private
   views are not well known.

   This appointment was followed by that of Archbishop Malcom Ranjith as
   Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the
   Sacraments. Archbishop Ranjith, known to be a traditional Catholic who
   has long been close to the positions of Joseph Ratzinger, replaced
   Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino, who was recently appointed Bishop of
   Assisi.

   The principal political office, the Cardinal Secretary of State, which
   is often likened to the pope's Prime Minister, is Tarcisio Cardinal
   Bertone, replacing Angelo Cardinal Sodano.

   On 31 October 2006, Pope Benedict appointed Cardinal Hummes to be the
   Prefect for the Congregation for the Clergy, succeeding Darío Cardinal
   Castrillón Hoyos due to his age.

Reform

   Pope Benedict began slimming the structure of the Roman Curia, when he
   merged four existing pontifical councils into two in March 2006. The
   Pontifical Council for Migrants and the Pontifical Council for Justice
   and Peace were consolidated into one office headed by Justice and Peace
   Cardinal President Renato Raffaele Martino. Likewise, Cardinal Paul
   Poupard, who headed the Pontifical Council for Culture, now also
   oversees the operations of what had been the Pontifical Council for
   Inter-Religious Dialogue. In the short term, two top prelates —
   Japanese Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao and British Archbishop Michael
   Fitzgerald — lost their Curial positions in the mergers.

Teachings

   As Pope, Benedict XVI's main role is to teach about the Catholic faith
   and the solutions to the problems of discerning and living the faith, a
   role that he can play well as a former head of the Church's
   Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The main points of emphasis
   of his teachings are stated in more detail in Theology of Pope Benedict
   XVI.

Friendship with Jesus Christ

   Benedict XVI: "The eucharist is the enduring presence of Jesus'
   self-oblation." (Deus Caritas Est)
   Enlarge
   Benedict XVI: "The eucharist is the enduring presence of Jesus'
   self-oblation." ( Deus Caritas Est)

   According to commentators, during the Inaugural Mass, the core of the
   Pope's message, the most moving and famous part, is found in the last
   paragraph of his homily where he referred to both Jesus Christ and John
   Paul II. After referring to John Paul II's well-known words, "Do not be
   afraid! Open wide the doors for Christ!", Benedict XVI said:


   Pope Benedict XVI

   Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully
   into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to Him, are we not afraid
    that He might take something away from us?...And once again the Pope
    said: No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing,
    absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No!
   Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation....When
     we give ourselves to Him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes,
    open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life.


   Pope Benedict XVI

   "Friendship with Jesus Christ" is a theme of his preaching which is
   found in many of Benedict's homilies and addresses, for example his
   address to the priests of Rome, his Episcopal diocese, to the cardinals
   in the pre-conclave, and to an audience of 150,000 people, among whom
   were children going to their First Communion. He has also said: "We are
   all called to open ourselves to this friendship with God... speaking to
   him as to a friend, the only One who can make the world both good and
   happy... (T)hat all we have to do is put ourselves at his disposal...is
   an extremely important message. It is a message that helps to overcome
   what can be considered the great temptation of our time: the claim,
   that after the Big Bang, God withdrew from history."

   He took up this theme once more in his first encyclical Deus Caritas
   Est. In his personal explanation and summary of the encyclical, he
   stated: "If friendship with God becomes for us something ever more
   important and decisive, then we will begin to love those whom God loves
   and who are in need of us. God wants us to be friends of his friends
   and we can be so, if we are interiorly close to them." Thus, he said
   that prayer is "urgently needed...It is time to reaffirm the importance
   of prayer in the face of the activism and the growing secularism of
   many Christians engaged in charitable work."

"Dictatorship of Relativism"

   Continuing what he said in the pre-conclave Mass about what he has
   often referred to as the "central problem of our faith today", on June
   6, 2005 Pope Benedict also said:


   Pope Benedict XVI

    Today, a particularly insidious obstacle to the task of education is
     the massive presence in our society and culture of that relativism
      which, recognizing nothing as definitive, leaves as the ultimate
    criterion only the self with its desires. And under the semblance of
   freedom it becomes a prison for each one, for it separates people from
          one another, locking each person into his or her own ego.


   Pope Benedict XVI

   He added that the world is "moving towards a dictatorship of
   relativism." Benedict traced the failed revolutions and violent
   ideologies of the twentieth century to a conversion of partial points
   of view into absolute guides: during World Youth Day, he said
   "Absolutizing what is not absolute but relative is called
   totalitarianism".

   In an address to a conference of the Diocese of Rome held at the
   basilica of St. John Lateran June 6, 2005, Benedict remarked on the
   issues of same-sex marriage and abortion:

          The various forms of the dissolution of matrimony today, like
          free unions, trial marriages and going up to pseudo-matrimonies
          by people of the same sex, are rather expressions of an anarchic
          freedom that wrongly passes for true freedom of man...from here
          it becomes all the more clear how contrary it is to human love,
          to the profound vocation of man and woman, to systematically
          close their union to the gift of life, and even worse to
          suppress or tamper with the life that is born.

   This has drawn sharp criticism from Catholic gay rights advocates like
   journalist Andrew Sullivan, who claim that Benedict is espousing a form
   of fundamentalist edict, and is opposed to external questioning of his
   doctrines. Supporters of the Pope argue that traditional Catholic
   teachings hold homosexual acts (as opposed to merely a homosexual
   orientation) as sinful and that Benedict XVI is simply being loyal to
   these teachings.

Christianity as the Religion according to Reason

   Ratzinger debates with German philosopher Jürgen Habermas at the
   Catholic Academy of Bavaria, Germany in 2004.
   Enlarge
   Ratzinger debates with German philosopher Jürgen Habermas at the
   Catholic Academy of Bavaria, Germany in 2004.

   In the discussion with secularism and rationalism, one of Benedict's
   basic ideas can be found in his address on the "Crisis of Culture" in
   the West, a day before Pope John Paul II died, when he referred to
   Christianity as the Religion of the Word (the original Greek, Logos,
   meaning reason, meaning, or intelligence). He said:


   Pope Benedict XVI

   From the beginning, Christianity has understood itself as the religion
      of the Logos, as the religion according to reason...It has always
    defined men, all men without distinction, as creatures and images of
    God, proclaiming for them...the same dignity. In this connection, the
   Enlightenment is of Christian origin and it is no accident that it was
        born precisely and exclusively in the realm of the Christian
     faith....It was and is the merit of the Enlightenment to have again
   proposed these original values of Christianity and of having given back
         to reason its own voice... Today, this should be precisely
    [Christianity's] philosophical strength, in so far as the problem is
    whether the world comes from the irrational, and reason is not other
   than a 'sub-product,' on occasion even harmful of its development -- or
     whether the world comes from reason, and is, as a consequence, its
    criterion and goal...In the so necessary dialogue between secularists
   and Catholics, we Christians must be very careful to remain faithful to
   this fundamental line: to live a faith that comes from the Logos, from
   creative reason, and that, because of this, is also open to all that is
                               truly rational.


   Pope Benedict XVI

   Benedict thus endorses creative reason, manifested in the crucified God
   as love, which contrasts with the strict rationality of the
   Enlightenment.

Encyclicals

   Pope Benedict has currently written one encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (
   Latin for "God is Love"). The encyclical reflects on the concepts of
   eros (possessive, often sexual, love), agape (unconditional,
   self-sacrificing love), logos (the word), and their relationship with
   the teachings of Jesus.

   The encyclical contains almost 16,000 words in 42 paragraphs. The first
   half is said to have been written by Benedict in German, his mother
   tongue, in the summer of 2005; the second half is derived from
   uncompleted writings left by his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. The
   document was signed by Pope Benedict on Christmas Day, 25 December
   2005. The encyclical was promulgated a month later in Latin and was
   translated into English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese,
   and Spanish. It is the first encyclical to be published since the
   Vatican decided to assert copyright in the official writings of the
   Pope.

Dialogue with other religious traditions

Christianity

   Speaking at his weekly audience in St Peter's Square on 7 June, 2006,
   Pope Benedict asserted that Jesus himself had entrusted the leadership
   of the Church to his apostle Peter. "Peter's responsibility thus
   consists of guaranteeing the communion with Christ," said Pope
   Benedict. "Let us pray so that the primacy of Peter, entrusted to poor
   human beings, may always be exercised in this original sense desired by
   the Lord, so that it will be increasingly recognised in its true
   meaning by brothers who are still not in communion with us." The Roman
   Catholic Church teaches that the Pope has a leading role among
   Christians because as bishop of Rome he is successor to the apostle
   Peter who first held the office. The role of the Roman Catholic papacy
   remains a source of controversy, not only for Protestant denominations
   but also for Eastern Orthodox churches and members of the
   Restorationism movement, which does not accept the dogmas of the First
   Vatican Council.

   The bishops of the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople
   have expressed concern over Pope Benedict XVI's decision to drop
   "patriarch of the West" from his official titles in the Vatican
   yearbook. In a June 8, 2006 statement, the chief secretary of the
   Orthodox bishops' synod said dropping "patriarch of the West" while
   retaining the titles "vicar of Jesus Christ" and "supreme pontiff of
   the universal church" is "perceived as implying a universal
   jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome over the entire church, which is
   something the Orthodox have never accepted." The statement was issued
   after synod members discussed the change during their early June
   meeting. Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council
   for Promoting Christian Unity, said in a March statement that dropping
   the title of patriarch in reference to the pope does not minimize the
   importance of the patriarchal office, particularly in relation to the
   ancient Eastern churches. "Even less can this suppression be seen as
   implying new claims" of power or authority on the part of the Vatican,
   he said. However, members of the Orthodox synod disagreed. From their
   point of view, "the geographical limits of each ecclesiastical
   jurisdiction" have been a key part of the structure of the church from
   the earliest days of Christianity. The church as a whole is "a unity of
   full local churches" and not a monolith divided into local units simply
   for the sake of easier governance. The Orthodox synod's statement said
   that, with the international Catholic-Orthodox theological dialogue set
   to begin again in September with plans to deal with the "thorny
   problem" of papal primacy, it would have been better not to have
   dropped the title without consultation.

   A leading Ukrainian Orthodox spokesman has said that a visit to Ukraine
   by Pope Benedict XVI would be "untimely," according to the country's
   RISU news service. "If Pope Benedict is a moral and a spiritual person
   and wants only good for Ukraine and its people, he will never take such
   an unreasonable step," said Valentyn Lukianyk, the head of the Union of
   Orthodox Brotherhoods of Ukraine. He was responding to the news that
   Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has invited the Pope to visit the
   country. There have been numerous clashes between Orthodox and Catholic
   believers over the ownership of parish properties that were confiscated
   by the Communists and handed over to Orthodox clerics. At the same
   time, Orthodox leaders have complained that Catholics are engaged in
   "proselytism," seeking converts among Orthodox believers. In his
   statement opposing a papal visit, Lukianyk said that relations between
   Catholics and Orthodox in Ukraine are now "warming." A visit by Pope
   Benedict, he said, would place an undue burden on those sensitive ties.

   On March 19, 2006, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney received a special
   invitation — to attend the elevation of Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley
   to cardinal at the Vatican. The trip to Rome is further evidence of a
   growing relationship between Romney and the local leadership of the
   Roman Catholic Church."This is extraordinary and particularly for
   someone of my faith," said Romney, a Mormon, before he spoke at a St.
   Patrick's Day breakfast in New Hampshire. "I don't know that there's
   ever been a Mormon guy that's been to the Vatican for a Mass held by
   the pope, so it's a personal honour."

Islam

Other

   The World Jewish Congress "welcomed" his election to the pontificate,
   noted "his great sensitivity to the Jewish history and the Holocaust,"
   and quoted the Pope in its press release:

          Even if the most recent, loathsome experience of the Shoah
          (Holocaust) was perpetrated in the name of an anti-Christian
          ideology, which tried to strike the Christian faith at its
          Abrahamic roots in the people of Israel, it cannot be denied
          that a certain insufficient resistance to this atrocity on the
          part of Christians can be explained by an inherited anti-Judaism
          present in the hearts of not a few Christians.

   The Dalai Lama also congratulated Pope Benedict XVI upon his election.

Apostolic journeys

   World Youth Day in Cologne
   Enlarge
   World Youth Day in Cologne
     * Italy ( May 29, 2005): Pope Benedict visited the Italian port of
       Bari and pledged to make the reconciliation with the Eastern
       Orthodox Church a "fundamental" commitment of his papacy. Benedict
       made the pledge in a city closely tied to the Orthodox Church.
       Bari, on Italy’s Adriatic coast, is considered a "bridge" between
       East and West and is home to the relics of St. Nicholas of Myra, a
       fourth century saint and the prototype of "Santa Claus," who is one
       of the most popular saints in both the Catholic and Orthodox
       churches. The Pope referred to Bari as a "land of meeting and
       dialog" with the Orthodox Church in his homily at a Mass that
       closed a national religious conference. It was his first pilgrimage
       outside Rome since being elected Pope on April 19. He visited
       Verona in October of 2006 for a meeting of the Italian Church.
     * Germany ( August 18 to August 21, 2005): The Pope arrived in
       Germany on August 18 in order to participate in the 20th World
       Youth Day in Cologne. There he met with President Horst Köhler,
       Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Leader of the Opposition Angela Merkel
       and others, and visited the famous Cologne Cathedral. The Pope
       visited the synagogue of the Jewish community in Cologne, which is
       the oldest Jewish community in the world north of the Alps.
       Benedict and his immediate predecessor John Paul II are the only
       two popes since St. Peter known to have visited a synagogue. He
       also spoke with representatives of the Muslim and Protestant
       communities of Cologne. On August 21, he led a Mass at Marienfeld.

   Benedict XVI on his arrival in Poland
   Enlarge
   Benedict XVI on his arrival in Poland
     * Poland ( May 25 to May 28, 2006): The Pope began his visit just
       after 11 a.m. on May 25, landing at the Okęcie Military Airport in
       Warsaw. Throughout his visit, he often spoke a few sentences of
       Polish, which he had learned phonetically. After a welcoming
       ceremony, Benedict drove in his pope-mobile to Warsaw cathedral,
       where he met and addressed a thousand clergymen. He also paid an
       official visit to the Presidential Palace and later that day
       attended a meeting of leaders of various religions. The Pope
       celebrated an open-air Mass on Piłsudski Square in Warsaw on May
       26, visited the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa and arrived in
       Kraków. On May 27 the pontiff went to Wadowice, the birthplace of
       his predecessor, the sanctuary in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, the Shrine
       of Divine Mercy in Łagiewniki and the Wawel Cathedral and addressed
       young people gathered at Błonia park in Kraków. On the last day of
       his visit on Sunday May 27, Benedict XVI celebrated Mass at Błonia
       for about 900,000 pilgrims, and later that day briefly prayed at
       the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
     * Spain ( July 8 to July 9, 2006): Pope Benedict visited Spain at the
       request of King Juan Carlos and the country's Catholic bishops, in
       particular Valencia, for the Fifth World Meeting of Families. The
       closing mass was held at the City of Arts and Sciences in the city.
       The Archbishop of Valencia, Agustin Garcia-Gasco also presided in
       the service and made a major address to the Pope and the gathering
       crowds.
     * Germany: The Pope visited Munich, Altötting, Marktl am Inn and
       Regensburg, all in his home state Bavaria, September 9- September
       14, 2006. After his arrival Benedict XVI was welcomed at Munich
       Airport by Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Horst Köhler. In
       his famous Popemobile he was driven through the city of Munich
       where he was the Archbishop from 1977 to 1982. He said a prayer on
       Marienplatz, the same ritual which he did before he was called to
       Rome by Pope John Paul II. More than half a million people joined
       the outdoor masses which were held in Munich and Regensburg. The
       Pope visited Marktl am Inn were he was born and baptized. He also
       spent one day with his brother Prelate Georg Ratzinger, they
       visited their parents' grave and stayed the rest of the day in
       Benedict's former resindence, a house which is still owned by the
       pope in a suburb of Regensburg.
     * Turkey ( November 28, 2006 - ongoing): The Pope arrived at Ankara,
       where he was received by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Titles

   The official title of the Pope is His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, In
   Latin- Benedictus XVI, Episcopus Romae. However his full title is "His
   Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ,
   Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the
   Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the
   Roman province, Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City, Servant of
   the Servants of God." This full title is however rarely used. The last
   title, Servant of the Servants of God, was added by Pope Paul VI in
   1969, who also dropped the phrase "gloriously reigning". Starting from
   1870, " Patriarch of the West" was also one of the pope's formal
   titles, but on 1 March 2006 the Vatican announced that it would no
   longer be used.

   The title "Patriarch of the West", which traditionally appeared in that
   list of titles before "Primate of Italy," has rarely been employed
   since the East-West Schism of 1054. The title of "Patriarch of the
   West" was first adopted in the year 642 by Pope Theodore I. From the
   Orthodox perspective, authority in the Church could be traced to the
   five original patriarchates of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria,
   Antioch, and Jerusalem. However, some Catholic theologians have argued
   that the term "Patriarch of the West" has no clear historical or
   theological basis and was introduced into papal court in 1870, at the
   time of the First Vatican Council. Pope Benedict chose to remove the
   title at a time when discussions with the Orthodox churches have
   centered on the issue of papal primacy. It has also been suggested that
   "the West" is a misnomer as the modern Latin Church is today global in
   its extent. Pope John Paul II reportedly considered dropping the title
   during his own pontificate.

   (Note on numbering: Pope Benedict X is now considered an anti-pope. At
   the time, however, this fact was not recognized and so the tenth true
   Pope Benedict took the official number XI. This caused the true
   fifteenth Pope Benedict to take the number XVI. This has advanced the
   numbering of all subsequent Popes Benedict by one. Popes Benedict
   XI-XVI are really the tenth through fifteenth popes by that name.)

Political positions

   In an interview in 2004 for Le Figaro magazine, Ratzinger said that
   Turkey, a country Muslim by heritage and population, but staunchly
   secularist by its state constitution, should seek its future in an
   association of Islamic nations rather than the European Union, which
   has Christian roots. He said Turkey had always been "in permanent
   contrast to Europe" and that linking it to Europe would be a mistake.

   It was widely reported in April 2006 that the Vatican had launched a
   commission to investigate and prepare a document regarding the question
   of whether there are any cases when a married person may use condoms to
   protect against infection from their spouse. Though no conclusions have
   yet been reached, the investigation has surprised many Catholics in the
   wake of John Paul II's consistent refusal to consider condom use in
   response to AIDS and the widespread belief that his successor shared
   this view. In November 2005 the Pope had listed several ways to combat
   the spread of HIV, including chastity, fidelity in marriage and
   anti-poverty efforts with no mention of condoms. However, Time Magazine
   reported in its April 30, 2006 edition that the Vatican's position
   remains what it always has been with Vatican officials "flatly
   dismiss[ing] reports that the Vatican is about to release a document
   that will condone any condom use."

   In May 2006, Pope Benedict rebuked Australia for the "painful" social
   plight of Aborigines, and urged the Australian people to seek their
   forgiveness. He told the new Australian ambassador to the Holy See,
   Anne Plunkett, that Australians needed to match their reputation as
   international peace-brokers with a determination for justice on their
   own soil, saying, "In regard to the Aboriginal people of your land,
   there is still much to be achieved". Benedict XVI - who intends to
   visit Sydney for World Youth Day in 2008 - said lasting reconciliation
   could be achieved through the "healing process" of forgiveness.

   Pope Benedict has also promoted various UN events, such as World
   Refugee Day, on which he offered up special prayers for refugees and
   called for the international community to do more to secure refugees'
   human rights. He also called on Catholic communities and organizations
   to offer them concrete help.

   On June 19, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI urged Christians to reject those
   who “falsify the Word of Christ,” which was seen as an allusion to the
   controversy over the novel Da Vinci Code. Addressing a huge open-air
   mass in central Warsaw on the second day of his visit to Poland, the
   pontiff used his homily to warn against the temptation of doctoring
   what he said were Biblical truths. He stated: “As in past centuries, so
   today there are people or groups who seek to falsify the Word of Christ
   and to remove from the Gospel those truths which in their view are too
   uncomfortable for modern man." In US author Dan Brown’s novel The Da
   Vinci Code, Jesus is said to have fathered a daughter with Mary
   Magdalene whose bloodline continues to this day.

   On June 28, 2006, for the first time in more than five years, an
   official Vatican delegation visited China and met with government
   officials, signaling a warming between the two nations that had
   previously been locked in conflict. "This is a real gesture by the
   Vatican and its diplomats," said the Reverend Bernardo Cervellera,
   director of AsiaNews, a Catholic missionary news service with close
   links to the Vatican. In sending diplomats to Beijing, the Vatican,
   under Pope Benedict XVI, is publicly expressing interest in improving
   relations with China despite the recent conflicts.

   In August, 2006, the pope granted an exclusive interview with the
   German TV station ZDF. It was aired on August 13, 2006. In this
   interview, he revealed a surprising and unexpected perspective in his
   thoughts, making amicable remarks about the Protestant churches,
   emphasizing the role of women in church, and said that "church is not
   an accumulation of prohibitions, but a positive option" ("der
   Katholizismus ist nicht eine Ansammlung von Verboten, sondern eine
   positive Option"). He also stressed several times that the church was a
   way to guide people, particularly in questions of AIDS and
   overpopulation, and therefore strong morals should be proclaimed. As a
   side note, he also stressed that humour is a good way to cope with
   stress, even for popes.

   Shortly afterwards, Pope Benedict XVI also warned about the dangers of
   excessive work. He quoted St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who said, "See
   where these accursed occupations can lead you, if you continue to lose
   yourself in them." The Pope himself said: "Numerous occupations often
   lead to 'hardness of heart.' They are no more than suffering for the
   spirit, loss of intelligence and dispersion of grace."

   On November 13, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI said Monday the North Korean
   nuclear dispute should be resolved through negotiations, in his first
   public comment on the security issue, a news report said. “The Holy See
   encourages bilateral or multilateral negotiations, convinced that the
   solution must be sought through peaceful means and in respect for
   agreements taken by all sides to obtain the denuclearization of the
   Korean Peninsula." Benedict said in a speech to the new Japanese
   ambassador to Vatican.

   In a message released November 14, 2006, during a Vatican press
   conference for the 2007 annual observance of World Day for Migrants and
   Refugees, the pope urged the ratification of international conventions
   and policies that defend all migrants, including refugees, exiles,
   evacuees and internally displaced people. “The church encourages the
   ratification of the international legal instruments that aim to defend
   the rights of migrants, refugees and their families,” the pope said.
   “Much is already being done for the integration of the families of
   immigrants, although much still remains to be done.”

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