Cardinal ratzinger biography
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Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) was born on 16 April 1927 in Marktl am Inn, Germany.
His father, a police officer, came from a traditional family of farmers from Lower Bavaria. He spent his adolescent years in Traunstein, a small town on the Austrian border.
It was in this context, which Pope Benedict XVI himself has described as "Mozartian", that he received his Christian, human and cultural formation.
Second World War
Joseph's days of youth were far from easy.
His faith and family upbringing prepared him for the harsh experience of the problems connected with the Nazi regime; he even remembers seeing his parish priest being beaten by Nazis before celebrating Holy Mass, and was well aware of the fiercely hostile atmosphere to the Catholic Church that existed in Germany at the time.
Towards the end of World War II, Joseph was enrolled in the auxiliary anti-aircraft service.
Priest, professor, Vatican Council
From 1946 to 1951, he studie
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Early life of Pope Benedict XVI
The early life of Pope Benedict XVI concerns the period from his birth in 1927 through the completion of his education and ordination in 1951.
Background and childhood (1927–1943)
[edit]Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger was born on 16 April (Holy Saturday) 1927 at 11 Schulstrasse, his parents' home in Marktl am Inn, Bavaria and baptised on the same day. He was the third and youngest child of Joseph Ratzinger Sr. (1877–1959), a police officer, and his wife, Maria (née Peintner) (1884–1963), whose family were from South Tyrol. His father served in both the Bavarian State Police (Landespolizei) and the German national Regular Police (Ordnungspolizei) before retiring in 1937 to the town of Traunstein. The Sunday Times described the older Ratzinger as "an anti-Nazi whose attempts to rein in Hitler's Brown Shirts forced the family to move several times."[1] According to the International Herald Tribune, these relocations were directly related to J
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Death of Pope Emeritus Benedict: his official biography
By Vatican News
Cardinal namn Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, was born at Marktl am Inn, Diocese of Passau (Germany) on 16 April 1927 (Holy Saturday) and was baptised on the same day.
His father, a Police Commissioner, belonged to an old family of farmers from Lower Bavaria of modest economic resources. His mother was the daughter of artisans from Rimsting on the shore of Lake Chiem. Before marrying, she worked as a cook in a number of hotels.
Joseph spent his childhood and adolescence in Traunstein, a small village near the Austrian border, thirty kilometres from Salzburg. In this environment, which he himself has defined as “Mozartian”, he received his Christian, cultural and human formation.
His youthful years were not easy. His faith and the education received at home prepared him for the harsh experience of those years during which the Nazi regime pursued a hostile attitude towards the Catholic Church. The ung Jos