Joseph Ratzinger was born in Germany, 16 April 1927, Holy Saturday. His father was a policeman. In 1932 his father's outspoken criticism of the Nazis required the family to relocate. His father retired in 1937, and his family moved again. In 1939, he entered the minor seminary, his first step toward the priesthood.

World War II forced a postponement of his studies, until 1945, when he re-entered the seminary with his brother Georg. In 1947, he entered a theological institute associated with the University of Munich. Finally, on 29 June 1951, both Joseph and his brother were ordained to the priesthood on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

He received his doctorate in theology in 1953, with a thesis entitled “The People and House of God in Augustine's doctrine of the Church.” In 1959, he began lectures as a full professor of fundamental theology at the University of Bonn. From 1962-1965, he was present during all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council as a peritus, or chief theological advisor.

In 1963, he began teaching at the University of Münster, taking, in 1966, a second chair at the University of Tübingen. A wave of student uprisings swept across Europe in 1968, and Marxism quickly became the dominant intellectual system. He had no sympathy with the new radical theology, so in 1969 he moved back to Bavaria and took a teaching position at the University of Regensburg. There, he eventually became dean and vice president. He was also a member of the International Theological Commission of the Holy See from 1969 until 1980.

In 1972, he helped launch the Catholic theological journal Communio, a quarterly review of Catholic theology and culture. It has been said that this was done in repsonse to the misinterpretation of the Second Vatican Council as represented by the theological journal Concilium.

In 1977, Fr. Ratzinger was elected Archbishop of Munich and Freising by Pope Paul VI. Later that same year he was elevated to Cardinal. In 1980, he was named by Pope John Paul II to chair the special Synod on the Laity. In 1981, he become the Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Cardinal Ratzinger was President of the Commission for the Preparation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and after 6 years of work (1986-92) he presented the new Catechism to the Holy Father. In 2002, his election as Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals was approved by Pope John Paul II.

As Dean of the College he presided over the College's deliberations during the vacancy of the Holy See, after the death of Pope John Paul II on 2 April 2005. He presided at the Funeral Mass for Pope John Paul II at 10 a.m. 8 April 2005.

On Tuesday morning, 19 April 2005, two ballots of the Conclave produced no election. However, on the first ballot of the afternoon, the fourth of the Conclave, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was elected the Bishop of Rome and the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church. On Sunday, 24 April 2005, at 10 a.m. he celebrated the Mass for the Inauguration of his pontificate in St. Peter's Square.

The following two questions were asked by Raymond Arroyo of Pope Benedict XVI while he was still Cardinal Ratzinger which first aired on EWTN on 5 September 2003. Click here to read the entire interview.

Raymond: Your Eminence, the other thing I – and this is a total personal appraisal – because of my post, and I cover the Church.  I travel about the World, and talk to so many people, I’m sure nothing approaching the groups of people you talk to, and the things you encounter.  And I have to tell you honestly, the recent days have been something of a trial of faith for me, and I know for some of my colleagues.  How do you weather what I’m sure is a temptation to despair at times, considering the cases you examine and the personalities you encounter at times?

Cardinal: Yes. I think we have to remember that Our Lord said to us that in, I know this in Italiano,…  (The answer is completely in Italian.  Translation follows)  Our Lord told us: ¨Within the fields of the Church, there will be not only wheat but chaff – from the seas of the world you will take not only fish but also unacceptable things’. Therefore, He announces to us a community, a Church in which scandals and sinners will be present. We must remember that St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, was a great sinner, and yet the Lord wanted precisely the sinner Peter as the rock of the Church. Thus He has already indicated to us not to expect great saints of all the Popes – we must also expect there to be sinners among them.  He announces to us that in the fields of the Church there will be much chaff. This sense should not surprise us if we consider all of Church history. There have been other times at least as difficult as ours with scandals, etc.  All we have to do is think of the ninth century, the tenth century, the Renaissance.  Therefore, looking at the words of the Lord, at the history of the Church, we can relativize today’s scandals. We suffer.  We must suffer because they – that is the scandals – made so many people suffer, and here we are thinking of the victims. Certainly we must do all we can to avoid that these things happen in the future.  But on the other hand, we know that the Lord – and this is the essence of the Church – the Lord sat at the table with sinners.  This is the definition of the Church:  The Lord sits at the table with sinners. Therefore, we cannot be amazed if it is like this.  We cannot despair.  On the contrary, the Lord said:  “I AM not here only for the just, but for sinners.”  We must feel certain that the Lord truly - even today – seeks sinners in order to save us. 

Raymond: My final question, what do you see, your Eminence, as the great danger and the great hope in the Church today?

Cardinal: I see the great danger is that we would be only a social association and not founded in the faith of the Lord.  For the first moment, it seems important that only what we are doing and the faith appears not so important.  But if the faith disappears, all the other things are discomposed, as we have seen.  So, I think there is a danger at this time with all these activities and external visions is to underestimate the importance of faith and to lose the faith, even a Church where the faith would not be so essential.