Benedict XVI, orig. Joseph Alois Ratzinger, (born April 16, 1927, Marktl am Inn, Ger.—died Dec. 31, 2022, Vatican City), Roman Catholic pope (2005–13). He was ordained a priest in 1951 and received a doctorate in theology at the University of Munich in 1953. Thereafter he pursued a career as a theologian and teacher at various universities. During the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) he served as an expert adviser and an advocate of reform. In 1977 he was appointed archbishop of Munich, and three months later he was made a cardinal. As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1981 to 2005, he enforced doctrinal uniformity in the church and served as a close adviser of Pope John Paul II. Benedict was faced with numerous challenges when he himself became pope, including a decline in church attendance and in the number of new priests, deep divisions over the direction of the church, and the lingering effects of a sexual-abuse scandal involving priests in various parts of the world. Citing age and health concerns, he resigned in 2013, becoming the first pope to do so since Gregory XII in 1415.
