Author

Pope Benedict XVI

On April 19 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI. He may well be the most accomplished theologian to be elected Pope in modern times. From 1981 he spent over twenty years as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a role often depicted as the 'defender of the faith'. Cardinal Ratzinger was also the President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and of the Preparatory Commission that codified the new Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1994.