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
Bruno Forte Bruno Forte Bruno Forte (born 1 August 1949) is an Italian Roman Catholic theologian and ecclesiastic, currently Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto. Archbishop Forte was born in Naples. He was ordained a priest on 18 April 1973. He studied at Tübingen University associated with Hans Küng, Joseph Ratzinger and Walter Kasper. He also spent time in Paris, before gaining a Laurea degree in philosophy from Naples university. He was called "the most famous Italian theologian in Italy" and is seen as more progressive than Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. In 2000, he oversaw the preparation of the Vatican document, "Memory and Reconciliation: The Church