CrucisPope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI was born Joseph Ratzinger on 16 April 1927 at Marktl in Bavaria, Germany. One of the foremost theologians of his age, he taught at several German universities and served as an influential expert at the Second Vatican Council before being made Archbishop of Munich and then, for over two decades, the trusted head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope St. John Paul II, guarding the integrity of Catholic teaching. He was elected pope in April 2005.
As pope he taught with clarity and depth, issuing encyclicals on love, hope, and charity and writing a notable three-volume work, Jesus of Nazareth, while calling the Church to a renewal of faith and reason against the "dictatorship of relativism." In February 2013, judging that his failing strength no longer sufficed for the burden of the office, he announced his resignation, the first pope to abdicate freely in centuries, and lived his remaining years in prayer and seclusion within the Vatican as "pope emeritus." He died on 31 December 2022.
Selected quotes
“The world offers you comfort, but you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.”
“Beauty is a path to God; the splendor of holiness and the beauty of the liturgy lift the heart toward the One who is Beauty itself.”
“The truth is not afraid of dialogue; in an age that doubts everything, the Christian dares to believe that truth exists and can be found.”