Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) was born on 16 April 1927 in Marktlam Inn in Germany. He was ordained a priest on 29 June 1951. His father, a police officer, came from a traditional family of farmers from lower Bavaria. He spent his adolescent years in Traunstein, and was called into auxiliary anti-aircraft service in the last months of World War II. In 1953 he obtained  a doctorate in theology. His theses was, “The People and House of God in St. Augustine’s Doctrine of the Church”. He then taught dogma and fundamental  theology at Freising, Bonn, Munster, Tubinga and Ragensberg. In 1962, at the age of 35 he became consulter to Cardinal Joseph Frings at Vatican Council II.

In 1977 he was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising and on 28 May 1977 he was created a Cardinal by Pope Paul VI. On 25 November 1981 he was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith and the President of the Biblical Commission. He was elected vice dean of the College of Cardinals in 1988 and Dean in 2002. On 19 April 2005 he was elected the 265^th Successor of Peter and began his Petrine ministry on 24 April the same year.