As Pope Benedict breathed his last on the 31st of December 2022, tributes came in far and wide from heads of states to commoners, from staunch believers to military leaders. Most called him as a clever theologian and a committed stalwart in the traditions and believes of the Church.
But for me like many others what Pope Benedict XVI will be remembered will be for being the first pope to give up the papacy in almost 600 years of the Catholic Church and then live for almost nine years as the Pope Emeritus. Its widely believed that the crucial factors that influences decisions taken by any person are the actual experiences he sees, hears and experiences in his childhood and early adulthood and hence Let’s understand a bit about the early life of Pope Benedict XVI before he became Pope.
Pope Benedict XVI was born Joseph Ratzinger on 16th April 1927 at Bavaria Germany. He was the third and youngest child of Joseph Ratzinger Sr., a police officer, and Maria Ratzinger His grand-uncle was the German priest-politician Georg Ratzinger. His mother’s family was originally from Italy.
At the age of five, Ratzinger met the visiting Cardinal Archbishop of Munich, Michael Faulhaber and announced his wish to be a cardinal. Ratzinger was forced to join the Nazi military and was trained in the infantry was freed after the allies took control in 1945. Ratzinger and his brother Georg entered Saint Michael Seminary in Traunstein in November1945 and was ordained on 29 June. After completing his dissertation, he became a professor at Freising College in 1958.During this period, he participated in the Second Vatican Council between1962 to 1965.
On 24 March 1977, Ratzinger was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising, and was ordained as bishop on 28 May the same year. He took as his episcopal motto Cooperatores veritatis which translates into Co-operators of the Truth.In June 1977, he was named Cardinal Priest by the then Pope Paul VI
In April 2005, before his election as pope, he was identified as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time.
On 19 April 2005, he was elected Pope on the second day after four ballots.
During the almost 2000 years that papacy has been in place around 260 Popes have occupied this position. Pope Benedict was only the third person ever to resign and the first in almost 600 odd years.
In a world where everyone tries to cling onto power by adopting different means and all methods this was a very refreshing change. While there was no pressure on Pope Benedict XVI to resign and he could have continued as Pope till his death; his decision to do so took everyone by surprise.
While there are several other great things that Pope Benedict xvi achieved during his lifetime many of which were highlighted by several others to me the ability to give up that kind of power without any pressure on him to do so this single act of his as his true legacy of his lifetime.
For individuals in leadership positions, personal wisdom is required on many fronts. An acceptance that our time is limited and that we must make the most of it. A realization that we only succeed by being part of something bigger; we are not the thing itself. And a humble acknowledgment that we matter only to the extent to which we bring uplift to others.
The wise leave before their time is up; before they actually need to; and on their own terms. The unwise, well, they make an unseemly spectacle of themselves and get remembered for the wrong reasons.
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