HAPPY 86th BIRTHDAY POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT XVI

• Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, was born at Marktl am Inn, Diocese of Passau (Germany) on 16 April 1927 (Holy Saturday) and was baptized on the same day.

• He received his priestly ordination on June 29, 1951.

• In 1953, he obtained his doctorate in theology with a thesis entitled “People and House of God in St Augustine’s Doctrine of the Church”.

• Four years later, under the direction of the renowned professor of fundamental theology Gottlieb Söhngen, he qualified for University teaching with a dissertation on: “The Theology of History in St Bonaventure”.

• From 1962 to 1965 he made a notable contribution to Vatican II as an “expert” (periti) ; being present at the Council as theological advisor of Cardinal Joseph Frings, Archbishop of Cologne.

• On March 25, 1977,  Pope Paul VI named him Archbishop of Munich and Freising.

• Pope Paul VI made him a Cardinal with the priestly title of “Santa Maria Consolatrice al Tiburtino”, during the Consistory of June 27, 1977.

• Blessed John Paul II named him Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and of the International Theological Commission on November 25, 1981.

•  On April 19, 2005, he was elected on his fellow Cardinals to be the next Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church.He was installed on April 25 of the same year.

• On February 28, 2013, he resigned his office as Supreme Pontiff. He is the first Pope Emeritus in nearly 600 years.

(Information provided by http://vatican.va)