Pope Benedict’s journey from Germany to the Vatican

Day of sorrow is for the Vatican today’s, as well passed away at the age of 95 Pope Benedict, who marked the Roman Catholic Church as the first pontiff to resign.

Joseph Ratzinger was born on April 27, 1927 in Passau, Germany. His father came from a farming family and was a member of the local gendarmerie, while his mother, before marrying, had worked as a cook in various hotels.

Ratchinger spent his teenage years a short distance from the border with Austria, near Salzburg. As he himself said, he knew the hostile attitude of Nazism towards the Catholic Church and he was an eyewitness to the day his parish priest was beaten by the Nazis. During World War II enlisted in the anti-aircraft reserve forces and then, from 1946 to 1951, he studied theology and philosophy in Munich. On June 29, 1951, he was ordained a priest and immediately began teaching theology, together with well-known professors of the time, in Bonn. He took part, as a scholar, in the Second Vatican Council, from 1962 to 1965. In 1977 Pope Paul VI appointed him archbishop of Munich and, in the same year, he was appointed a cardinal by the same pontiff.

In 1981, Pope John Paul II appointed Joseph Ratzinger head of the Vatican’s “ministry” for the correctness of the faith and as the Vatican itself has underlined “his overall work, as an associate of Pope John Paul II, was lasting and valuable”. Shortly before his death, the Polish pontiff asked him to write the reflections of the Catholic Way of Martyrdom, (Via Crucis) for Easter 2005, in the Colosseum.

On February 28, 2013, Benedict officially resigned as Pontiff, causing enormous consternation among faithful Catholics and not only. The reason for this decision, as he himself underlined, his health problems, which had worsened. After the election of Francis, Benedict was named “pontiff emeritus of the Roman Catholic Church”.