“After the great Pope John Paul II, the Cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord.” With these words the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI approached more than 1.1 billion Catholics worldwide from the balcony of the St. Peters Basilica on April 19th 2005. After only 26 hours in conclave in the Sistine Chapel, the 115 congregated cardinals elected him as successor of John Paul II. It was a surprise since a favoured Cardinal had in fact seldom been chosen as Pontiff. Benedict XVI is the eighth German Pope overall, but the first after nearly five hundred years.
He was born as Joseph Ratzinger on April 16th 1927 in Marktl am Inn in Bavaria. After his studies in theology and philosophy he completed his doctorate with the subject Augustine and attended a dogmatic professorship in 1958. In May 1977 he was consecrated as archbishop of Munich and one month later he was appointed a Cardinal. As from 1981 until 2005 Ratzinger functioned as a prefect for the vital faith congregation and was therewith a close confident of Pope John Paul II.