Happy Birthday!
On 16 April 1927 (Holy Saturday), Joseph Ratzinger was born in Marktl am Inn in Bavaria. He was baptized on Easter.
To be the first person baptized with the new water was seen as a significant act of Providence. I have always been filled with thanksgiving for having had my life immersed in this way in the Easter Mystery … the more I reflect on it, the more this seems fitting for the nature of our human life: we are still waiting for Easter; we are not yet standing in the full light but walking toward it full of trust.
He and his brother Georg were both ordained priests on 29 June 1951. He became a professor of theology in 1958, his chosen career and one that allowed him to attend the Second Vatican Council as an advisor.
He was appointed Archbishop of München und Freising in 1977 and called to the Vatican by Pope John Paul II in 1981 as Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He attempted several times to resign from this position so that he could spend his remaining years writing and noodling around on the piano.
It was not to be. The Pope refused to accept his resignation. When Pope John Paul II died in 2005, Cardinal Ratzinger was sure that he would be finally allowed to retire. He had purchased a house in Bavaria, and his cat had already been moved up there.
Instead of retirement, the College of Cardinals called him to one last, great service in the Church.
Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the Cardinals have elected me, a simple, humble labourer in the vineyard of the Lord. The fact that the Lord knows how to work and to act even with insufficient instruments comforts me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers. In the joy of the Risen Lord, confident of his unfailing help, let us move forward. The Lord will help us, and Mary, His Most Holy Mother, will be on our side. Thank you.
I would like to wish our Pope a very happy 84th birthday; may he have many more!
