Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger was born on 16 April, Holy Saturday, 1927, at 8:30 a.m. in his parents’ home in Marktl, Bavaria, Germany, at Schulstraße 11.
On the same day, he was baptized. He was the third and youngest child of police officer Joseph Ratzinger Sr. and Maria Ratzinger (née Peintner); his grandfather was German priest-politician Georg Ratzinger. His mother’s family was from South Tyrol (now in Italy). Georg Ratzinger, Benedict’s elder brother, was a Catholic priest and former director of the Regensburger Domspatzen choir. Maria Ratzinger, who never married, was in charge of her brother Joseph’s household until her death in 1991.
In 1951, Ratzinger began his career as a chaplain at the parish of St. Martin, Moosach, in Munich. Ratzinger became a professor at the University of Bonn in 1959, with his inaugural lecture on “The God of Faith and the God of Philosophy”. He moved to the University of Münster in 1963. During this time, he took part in the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and worked as a peritus (theological consultant) to Cardinal Frings of Cologne. During the council, he was seen as a reformer, working with theologians such as Hans Küng and Edward Schillebeeckx. Ratzinger became a fan of Karl Rahner, a well-known academic theologian of the Nouvelle Théologie and proponent of church reform.
Pope Benedict XVI’s children: Did Pope Benedict XVI have kids?
According to research, pope Benedict does not have kids
