Benedict XVI
German theologian, archbishop of Munich and for more than twenty years prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Elected pope in 2005, he renounced the office in February 2013 and lived in retirement in the Vatican until his death.
Joseph Ratzinger was born at Marktl am Inn in Bavaria on 16 April 1927 and ordained a priest in 1951 (Deed for the Pious Transit of Benedict XVI (2023)). He taught theology at Bonn, Münster, Tübingen and Regensburg, and attended the Second Vatican Council as an expert adviser to Cardinal Frings (Deed for the Pious Transit of Benedict XVI (2023)). Paul VI made him archbishop of Munich and Freising and a cardinal in 1977, and John Paul II made him prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1981 (Deed for the Pious Transit of Benedict XVI (2023)). The cardinals elected him pope on 19 April 2005 (Deed for the Pious Transit of Benedict XVI (2023)).
As prefect he signed the instructions of 1984 and 1986 on liberation theology (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Libertatis Nuntius conclusion and signature) (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Libertatis Conscientia conclusion and signature); see Medellín and Liberation Theology. He chaired the commission that prepared the Catechism of the Catholic Church (John Paul II, Fidei Depositum II) and the one that prepared its Latin edition (John Paul II, Laetamur Magnopere, paragraph 4); see the Catechism of the Catholic Church. As pope he argued that the council should be read as reform in continuity and not as a break (Benedict XVI, Address to the Roman Curia (22 December 2005), on the council).
He also signed the letter of 2001 that told the bishops of the new law reserving cases of the sexual abuse of minors by clerics to his congregation, and as pope he approved its revision in 2010 (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Historical Introduction to the Norms (2010)). That year he wrote to the Catholics of Ireland, telling victims that he was “truly sorry” and the bishops that some of them and their predecessors had failed, at times grievously, to apply canon law to the crime of child abuse (Benedict XVI, Letter to the Catholics of Ireland 6, 11); see the Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis.
On 11 February 2013 he declared that he renounced the ministry of bishop of Rome from 28 February (Benedict XVI, Declaratio (11 February 2013)); see Benedict XVI Resigns and Francis Is Elected. He lived his last years in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican and died on 31 December 2022 (Deed for the Pious Transit of Benedict XVI (2023)).
In the timeline
- 24 August 1968, firm dateMedellín and Liberation Theology
In 1968 the Catholic bishops of Latin America apply the Second Vatican Council to a continent of mass poverty and speak of liberation. Gustavo Gutiérrez builds a theology on that word, and Rome answers with a warning in 1984 and a positive statement in 1986.
- 11 October 1992, firm dateThe Catechism of the Catholic Church
On 11 October 1992 John Paul II orders the publication of a catechism for the whole Catholic Church, asked for by the bishops’ synod of 1985 and drafted over six years under Cardinal Ratzinger. It sets out Catholic teaching in four parts.
- 6 January 2002, firm dateThe Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis
From January 2002, reports from Boston and then official inquiries in the United States, Ireland and Australia document the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy and its concealment by church authorities. Popes change church law. Reports on other churches follow.
- 11 February 2013, firm dateBenedict XVI Resigns and Francis Is Elected
Benedict XVI tells the cardinals that his strength is no longer equal to the office and renounces it from 28 February 2013. On 13 March the conclave elects Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, a Jesuit, who takes the name Francis.
Primary sources
Deed for the Pious Transit of His Holiness Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus
- Deed for the Pious Transit of Benedict XVI (2023)press.vatican.va