Birthday Blessings for Pope Benedict XVI
A gift of public service
from U.S. Catholic youth and students

Pope Benedict XVI was born Joseph Aloysius Ratzinger on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, Germany. He was born on the day before Easter that year. He was the youngest of three children, with an older sister named Maria and an older brother named Georg.

Joseph liked school and was a good student. He liked to play in the woods and enjoyed the trees, plants and animals. His family attended Mass often and prayed the rosary together every day, and Joseph served his local church as an altar server. At the invitation of his parish priest, he began attending St. Michael’s Seminary, a minor seminary, at age 12. His education was interrupted by World War II, but after the war he continued studying at the Higher School of Philosophy and Theology of Freising and at the University of Munich.

On June 29, 1951, Joseph and his brother Georg were ordained priests. After working briefly as a parish priest, Joseph was sent for advanced studies in theology and became a theologian and university professor.

In May 1977, he was consecrated as the archbishop of Munchen and Freising, Germany. A month later, he was made a cardinal. He participated in the elections of Pope John Paul I and Pope John Paul II. He began working in Rome as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and of the International Theological Commission in 1981.

He was elected pope on April 19, 2005 and installed on April 24.

For a more detailed biography, visit the Vatican Web site at:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/biography/documents/hf_ben-xvi_bio_20050419_short-biography_en.html