When Joseph Ratzinger was five years old, he was in a group of children who welcomed the Cardinal Archbishop of Munich by giving him flowers. Joseph found interest in the Cardinal and said that day that he wanted to be a cardinal when he gets older. When Joseph turned 14 in 1941, he was automatically enlisted into the Hitler Youth since all 14 year old boys were required after 1939. He was an unenthusiastic member and refused to attend the meetings. Later in the year of 1941, Joseph’s cousin with Down syndrome was killed by the Nazis at the age of 14 as a part of there eugenics. The Nazi eugenics is the Nazi’s beliefs that they can create a better human species by not having the persons with genetic defects reproduce. They also encourage the people with the good traits to reproduce more to create a better race.

            In 1943, Joseph Ratzinger was drafted into the German anti-aircraft corps at the age of 16. The anti-aircraft corps is where child soldiers were put into World War II. Ratzinger trained for the German military, but he got an illness which allowed him from not being in the infantry at the time. When the enemy got closer in 1945, Joseph Ratzinger deserted the military and went back to his family’s home. Joseph and his brother George joined back up into the seminary later in 1945. The two brothers entered Saint Michael Seminary in Traunstein. They were both ordained by Cardinal Michael Van Faulhaber on June 29, 1951 in Munich. By 1958, Joseph Ratzinger became a professor of Freising College.

            Joseph Ratzinger later the next year moved to become a professor at the University of Bonn in 1959 in which his inaugural lecture to his class was called “the God of Faith and the God of Philosophy.” In 1963, Joseph moved again to become another professor for the University of Munster. In 1966, Joseph once again moved to a different school and this time he went to the University of Tubingen to be the second chair in dogmatic theology. There was a different type of religion going through Tubingen in 1969, so Joseph Ratzinger moved back to Bavaria and took a teaching position at the University of Regensburg. Eventually, Joseph became dean and then later than that he became the president of the University.

            In 1972, Joseph Ratzinger and a few others launched a Catholic theological journal called “Communio.” The “Communio” was a quarterly review on Catholic theology and culture. People believe that this quarterly review was made because of the misinterpretation of the Second Vatican Council by Karl Rahner. On March 24, 1977, Father Ratzinger was elected Archbishop of Munich and Freising by Pope Paul VI. Joseph was ordained as the Episcopal Order on May 28, 1977, and he took his motto from 3 John 8, “Fellow Worker in Truth.”

Almost one month later, Joseph was put to the position of Cardinal by Pope John VI. In 1980, Cardinal Ratzinger was named by Pope John Paul II to chair the Synod of Laity. Soon after this, the Pope asked him to be the head of the Congregation for Catholic Education. Cardinal Ratzinger declined this invitation to be the head of the Catholic Education because he thought that he shouldn’t leave his post in Munich as the Cardinal quite yet. On November 25 1981, Joseph Ratzinger became the Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith and also becoming the President of Pontifical Biblical Commission, and the International Theological Commission.

Cardinal Ratzinger was the President of the Commission for the Preparation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. After working on the Catechism of the Catholic Church for six years, from 1986 to 1992, he finished. He showed the copy that he revised to Pope John Paul II. On November 9th of 1998, Joseph Ratzinger was elected as Vice-Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals and was approved by Pope John Paul II. A few years later in 2002, Pope John Paul II also approved of Cardinal Ratzinger’s election as the Dean of the College of Cardinals on November 30th.
            Cardinal Ratzinger had many groups he was a member in. These all include: the Second Section of the Secretariat of State, the Congregation of Bishops, of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, of Catholic Education, of Evangelization of Peoples, for the Oriental Churches; and the Pontifical Councils for Christian Unity, for Culture (councils); as well as, the Commissions Ecclesia Dei, and for Latin America.

After Pope John Paul II’s death on April 2, 2005, Ratzinger, being the Dean of the College took over and was in charge until they found a new Pope. On the 19th of April, they were in the process of electing a new pope and Cardinal Ratzinger became the Bishop of Rome and the Pope of the Catholic Church. On Saturday, April 24, 2005 at 10 a.m., Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the Mass for the Inauguration of his Pontificate in St. Peter’s Square, receiving the Pallium and the Fisherman’s Ring.