| Policeman’s Son; German soldier…

Pope shocked the world by abdicating. It must be said that the world sees Pope Emirates Benedict XVI through a different perspective. This is the first time since 1415 that a bishop of the Catholic Church has shown such a broad example.

Living through the Nazi era, Joseph Ratzinger’s life took an unexpected turn from the start. Just a policeman’s son. Member of Hitler’s Youth Wing during World War II. That too at the age of fourteen. It was compulsory service. Later, he left the German Army in April 1945. At the end of World War II to be exact.

In 1951 he took the step to the divine path with his brother George. He gained attention as a liberal theological advisor at the Second Vatican Council. The drastic reforms in the church started from there. He became a conservative who defended the church during the student riots of 1962, when Marxism and atheism swept across Europe.

His rise from medical scholar to cardinal was swift. Archbishop of Munich in 1977. Later he became the head of Vishwa Thiru Sangha. At the age of seventy-eight, he was appointed to become the Pope. That too on April 19, 2005, he succeeded Pope John Paul II. Thus, in a thousand years, the Catholic Church got a German shepherd. Oldest Pope in 275 years.

Pope Benedict shocked the world on February 11, 2013. Softly in Latin, he declared: I no longer have the capacity to lead the Catholic Church of 1.2 billion… With this declaration, the conclave elected Pope Francis as Benedict’s successor. And so the world witnessed the unprecedented moment when two Popes were together in the Vatican.

Frankly, Joseph Ratzinger never wanted to be a pope. He wanted to lead a peaceful life with little writing in his native Bavaria. Suddenly an unexpected assignment comes. An eventful era began there.