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The popes · No. 265 of 267

Benedict XVI

A professor who became pope, and then did something no pope had done in six hundred years.

Pope 2005 to 2013

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Pope Benedict XVI in white cassock, smiling, hands folded.

Medialpj, 2011. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Home / The popes / Benedict XVI

The Vatican, 11 February 2013

In a routine meeting of cardinals, the pope begins reading a short text in Latin.1

“I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.”

Benedict XVI, 11 February 20131

Joseph Ratzinger had always been a surprise to people who thought they knew him.

01Benedict XVI

The professor

He was born on 16 April 1927 at Marktl am Inn in Bavaria.2

A theologian and professor, he became archbishop of Munich in 1977 and then served John Paul II for more than twenty years as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.2

02Benedict XVI

The renunciation

He was elected on 19 April 2005, and with full freedom renounced the ministry of Bishop of Rome from 28 February 2013.1

A pope who loved tradition did something without precedent in six centuries, and did it out of humility.

The next pope took a name no pope had ever chosen.

Notes

  1. Pope Benedict XVI, Declaratio (renunciation of the Petrine ministry), 10 February 2013. Holy See, official English text. vatican.va
  2. Biography of Pope Benedict XVI. Holy See, official English text. vatican.va

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision (public domain). Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an error.