Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI (; ; ; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger; ; 16 April 1927) served as Pope of the Catholic Church and as sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2005 until his resignation in 2013. Benedict's election as pope occurred in the 2005 papal conclave that followed the death of Pope John Paul II. The Vatican announced his withdrawal by bestowing him the title Pope Emeritus shortly after his resignation. Ordained as a priest in 1951 in his native Bavaria, Ratzinger had established himself as a highly regarded university theologian by the late 1950s and was
Georg Ratzinger his home parish in Traunstein. In February 1964 he was made musical director, Domkapellmeister, at St. Peters Cathedral in Regensburg, thereby becoming the chorus master of the Cathedral Choir, the Regensburger Domspatzen. As director of this boys' and men's choir, Ratzinger oversaw the recording of numerous pieces (e.g. J. S. Bach: "Christmas Oratorio" and motets, H. Schütz: Psalmen Davids), concert tours (among others to the U.S., Scandinavia, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, Ireland, Poland, Hungary, and the Vatican; and a tour of Germany every year), and the liturgical activities of the choir. In 1976 the choir celebrated its 1,000th anniversary. In 1977