Home > Terms > English, UK (UE) > Pope Benedict XVI

Benedict XVI (born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger; 16 April 1927) is the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church. As a Pope, Benedict XVI serves as Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the supreme leader of the Catholic Church. Benedict XVI was elected in 2005 in a papal conclave after the death of Pope John Paul II. He celebrated his Papal Inauguration Mass on 24 April 2005, and took possession of his cathedral, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, on 7 May 2005. A native of Bavaria, Pope Benedict XVI has both German and Vatican citizenship.

Ordained as a priest in 1951, Ratzinger established himself as a highly regarded university theologian and served as a professor of theology at several German universities. He was laster appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising and cardinal by Pope Paul VI. He became Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and settled in Rome in 1981. He later became the Dean of the College of Cardinals, and as such the primus inter pares among the cardinals priorities and directions" as one of Pope John Paul II's closest confidants.

On 11 February 2013 Pope Benedict announced his resignation from the papacy, effective 28 February 2013, due to "lack of strength of mind and body", becoming the first pope to resign since Pope Gregory XII in 1415, and the first to do so voluntarily since Celestine V in 1294. The last pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII in 1415. He stepped down to end the "Great Western Schism" -- during which there were rival claims to the papal throne. In 1294, Pope Celestine V resigned after only five months, preferring the simple life of a monk to the majesty of being pope.