| The policeman’s son; German soldier…

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

Living through the Nazi era, Joseph Ratzinger’s life took an unexpected turn from the start. Just a cop’s son. Member of Hitler’s youth wing during WWII. That too at the age of fourteen. He was a mandatory service. Subsequently, 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 adviser to the Second Vatican Council. Drastic reforms in the church started from there. He became a conservative who defended the church during the student riots of 1962, as Marxism and atheism spread across Europe.

His rise from medical scholar to cardinal was rapid. He Archbishop of Munich in 1977. He later became the head of the Vishwa Thiru Sangha. At the age of seventy-eight he was nominated Pope. He too succeeded Pope John Paul II on 19 April 2005. Thus, in a thousand years, the Catholic Church has had a German Shepherd. Oldest pope at 275 years.

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

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