Ave Papa - we have a new Pope

[MrBishop]

Pope Joseph Ratzinger (born April 16, 1927) is pope of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1981 Cardinal Ratzinger was appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by Pope John Paul II, made a Cardinal Bishop of the episcopal see of Velletri-Segni in 1993, and was elected Dean of the College of Cardinals in 2002, becoming titular bishop of Ostia. One of the most influential men in the Vatican and a close associate of the late Pope John Paul II, he has been mentioned by many commentators as a possible successor. He presided over the funeral of John Paul II and will also preside over the Conclave in 2005. During the sede vacante, he is the highest-ranking official in the Catholic Church.

[edit]
Early life and works
Ratzinger was born in Marktl am Inn, in Bavaria, the son of a police officer who was staunchly anti-Nazi. In 1937 Ratzinger's father retired and settled in the town of Traunstein. When Ratzinger turned 14 in 1941, he was required by law to join the Hitler Youth , but according to his biographer John Allen he was not an enthusiastic member. In 1943, at the age of 16 he was, along with the rest of his class, drafted into the Flak or anti-aircraft corps, responsible for the guarding of a BMW plant outside Munich. He was then sent for basic infantry training and was posted to Hungary, where he worked setting up anti-tank defences until he deserted in April 1944 (an offence punishable by death). In 1945 he was briefly held in an Allied POW camp. By June he was released, and he and his brother (Georg) entered a Catholic seminary. On June 29, 1951, they were ordained by Cardinal Faulhaber of Munich. His dissertation (1953) was on Saint Augustine, his Habilitationsschrift (second dissertation) on Saint Bonaventure.

Ratzinger was a professor at the University of Bonn from 1959 until 1963, when he moved to the University of Münster. In 1966, he took a chair in dogmatic theology at the University of Tübingen, where he was a colleague of Hans Küng but was confirmed in his traditionalist views by the liberal atmosphere of Tübingen and the Marxist leanings of the student movement of the 1960s. In 1969 he returned to Bavaria, to the University of Regensburg.

At the Second Vatican Council (1962 – 1965), Ratzinger served as a peritus or chief theological expert, to Cardinal Joseph Frings of Cologne, Germany.

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Communio and later works
In 1972, he founded the theological journal Communio with Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac and others. Communio, now published in seventeen editions (German, English, Spanish and many others), has become one of the most important journals of Catholic thought.

In March 1977 Ratzinger was named archbishop of Munich and Freising and in the consistory that June was named a Cardinal by Pope Paul VI. Today he is one of only 14 remaining cardinals appointed by Paul VI, and one of only three of those under the age of 80 and so eligible to vote in the conclave of April 2005.

On November 25, 1981 Pope John Paul II named Ratzinger prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition, which was renamed in 1908 by Pope Pius X. He resigned the Munich archdiocese in early 1982, became cardinal-bishop of Velletri-Segni in 1993, vice-dean of the College of Cardinals in 1998, and was elected Dean in 2002. In office, Ratzinger usually takes conservative views on topics such as birth control and inter-religious dialogue. He has been closer to John Paul II than any other cardinal, and Ratzinger and the Pope have been called "intellectual bedfellows".

Hmmmmm

[Jonathan]

Habemus Papam! A German one too, meaning they didn't go back to "Italians only" . Ratzinger was one of the favourites among the bookmakers, and it was believed chances were big that the next pope would choose the name Benedict XVI.

[edit] I guess the other cardinals wanted a pope who knows the Vatican like the palms of his hand. Ratziger was the perfect choice seeing that he's worked with the old pope since the 70's.

[Nurvingiel]

What's "hmmmm" the Hitler Youth thing? I think his later desertion of the army shows what he thought about that rubbish.

I wondered how many German popes there have been, and a quick Google turns up that there have been six, and Pope John Paul II was the first non-Italian Pope since 1523.

EDIT: *waves to Jonathan in cross-posting*

[Mercutio]

He's the first German pope since the 1100s, I believe. He's also an accomplished pianist.

[Tessar]

YAY!

And he's highly conservative, which makes me very, very, very happy .

[Spock]

He has a huge job ahead but appears very competent to accomplish it. May he reign in peace.

[Fat middle]

It's amazing how short has been the conclave (do you use the same word in English?). Considering that he has got more than 77 votes out of 115 it seems that 4 votations have been very few. Pope JPII needed 8 votations to be elected. All this says that he's very respected between the cardinals.

And I'd like to say that it does semms also that all that journalist rubish that they've been selling about being to confronted sides in the conclave have very little basis...

[Spock]

Yep, it is the same word. BTW how to you get that tiny print, I've looked all over and can't figure out how to do it?

[The Wizard from Milan]

Ratzinger strongly advocated against gays asking people of faith to repeal any legislation granting protection to homosexuals.

He was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which is the organ of the church devoted to squelching internal dissent on theological matters.

He is also agaist contraception and condom usage everywhere in the world.
He is against a greater role of women in the church and wants to uphold celibacy.

He was a memeber of the Nazi party in his youth, although you have to know that membership to the Nazi party was "compulsory" in Germany in that time. Well, it was not truly compulsory, but refusing the membership would have brought you to jail and he was 14-17 years old when that happened.

[Spock]

Ich weiß nichts.

[Rían]

Originally Posted by Spock

Yep, it is the same word. BTW how to you get that tiny print, I've looked all over and can't figure out how to do it?

It's the size option. Quote his post and you'll see how he did it


Best wishes to the new pope and to Catholics worldwide

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by The Wizard from Milan

Ratzinger strongly advocated against gays asking people of faith to repeal any legislation granting protection to homosexuals.

He was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which is the organ of the church devoted to squelching internal dissent on theological matters.

He is also agaist contraception and condom usage everywhere in the world.
He is against a greater role of women in the church and wants to uphold celibacy.

The new pope may be conservative but supposedly he is careful to state that he thinks it is more a question of tradition than what's right or wrong. According to Catholic tradition, women, homosexuals and condoms don't have a high status so to speak, and the pope is a traditionalist. As far as I know he wants to make people of the world understand these traditions so people don't believe all Catholics hate eg. condoms because contraception is evil.

Originally Posted by The Wizard from Milan

He was a memeber of the Nazi party in his youth, although you have to know that membership to the Nazi party was "compulsory" in Germany in that time. Well, it was not truly compulsory, but refusing the membership would have brought you to jail and he was 14-17 years old when that happened.

Well he was a member of "Hitler Jugend" really, not the Nazi party. As you said, membership was compulsory and practically every child in Germany was a member. I don't think one can hold this former membership against him and it certainly doesn't mean he had Nazi sympathies or anything. Besides, he was a very inactive member or so I've heard.

[Meriadoc Brandybuck]

Originally Posted by Tessar

YAY!

And he's highly conservative, which makes me very, very, very happy .

Me too!

Originally Posted by Mercutio

He's the first German pope since the 1100s, I believe. He's also an accomplished pianist.

During the 11th century (I think) actually.

[Small No-name]

Is int it so cool we got a new pope and he is german that is so cool yes yes

[The Wizard from Milan]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

Well he was a member of "Hitler Jugend" really, not the Nazi party. As you said, membership was compulsory and practically every child in Germany was a member. I don't think one can hold this former membership against him and it certainly doesn't mean he had Nazi sympathies or anything. Besides, he was a very inactive member or so I've heard.

No, but a few heros resisted and survived. You would hope that the new Pope were among these, at least when he got older. Although I am willing to accept that he was still young.

[inked]

Congratulations to the Roman Catholics! I am glad you have a conservative and traditionalist as Pope. While not popular in this forum or the Global North, the RC's do have a coherent and consistent belief system and they mean what they say. Good thing the former JPII had this Cardinal as in charge of doctrine and conformity to the teaching of the Church. I think that this means there will be no sea change in the current modus operandi.

[The Wizard from Milan]

Originally Posted by inked

the RC's do have a coherent and consistent belief system and they mean what they say.

Hem, hem, it could hardly be more false than that.
The roman catholic leadership is extremely manipulative in its believe system. Want a recent example? John Paul II clearly accelerated his own death when he saw it most convenient for his own agenda (pushing for his own sainthood) and the church (the parading of his suffering was good for the church, but now his imparement was too big and was actually a hinderance). The catholic church picks and chooses whatever is most convenient to them between "no euthanesia/no assisted suicide" and "no excessive therapy (don't quite know the name of it in English, in Italian it is called "no all'accanimento terapeutico").

EDIT: added the subject "it" to the first sentence so that it makes clear that it refers to the quoted sentence, not the quote person

[Lief Erikson]

He sounds wonderful . I'm pleased.

[Count Comfect]

Wizard - I think the term usually used in English is "heroic measures," but I may be wrong.

I'm not quite sure what to think of this Pope. As a non-Catholic it isn't that much of my business, but I certainly hope he will build on JPII's legacy rather than repudiating it. And given that he was very close to JPII, that seems likely.

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by The Wizard from Milan

Hem, hem, could hardly be more false than that.
The roman catholic leadership is extremely manipulative in its believe system. Want a recent example? John Paul II clearly accelerated his own death when he saw it most convenient for his own agenda (pushing for his own sainthood) and the church (the parading of his suffering was good for the church, but now his imparement was too big and was actually a hinderance). The catholic church picks and chooses whatever is most convenient to them between "no euthanesia/no assisted suicide" and "no excessive therapy (don't quite know the name of it in English, in Italian it is called "no all'accanimento terapeutico").

Hem, hem, you could hardly be more false than that.

The church is not manipulative in its belief system--we have a set of hard and fast rules. If you want to be a Catholic you have to follow those. If you don't like them, no one's making you follow them.

Lets not turn this into a bash the church thread. If you want to do that you may feel free to do so in the religion discussion thread.