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Australia and the Popes

Pope Benedict XVI : 2005–

Oldest pope at election since 1730:

Pope Benedict XVI was born Joseph Alois Ratzinger on 16 April 1927. He is the 265th reigning Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, and sovereign of Vatican City State. He was elected on April 19, 2005 in a papal conclave, celebrated his Papal Inauguration Mass on April 24, 2005, and took possession of his cathedral, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, on May 7, 2005.

He was elected pope at the age of 78 and is the oldest person to have been elected pope since Clement XII in 1730. He served longer as a cardinal before being elected pope than did any pope since Benedict XIII (elected 1724). He is the ninth German pope, the last being the Dutch-German Adrian VI (1522–1523). The last pope named Benedict was Benedict XV, an Italian who reigned from 1914 to 1922, during World War I. Pope Benedict XVI has both German and Vatican citizenship.

At the Conclave of 2005 which elected him he was one of only two of the 115 Cardinal electors present who had previously participated in a conclave.

Before becoming pope, Cardinal Ratzinger was already one of the most influential men in the Roman Curia, and was a close associate of the late John Paul II. As Dean of the College of Cardinals he presided over the funeral of John Paul II and also over the Mass immediately preceding the 2005 conclave in which he was elected, in which he called on the assembled cardinals to hold fast to the doctrine of the faith. He was the public face of the church in the sede vacante period, although technically he ranked below the camerlengo in administrative authority during that time.

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The textual material on these pages was sourced from a large number of places all of which can be found through the links on each page. The material was researched, assembled and produced by Brian Coyne for Catholic Australia. The images used in the Flash animations are in the public domain. Other images used are in the public domain or sourced from the webpages to which they are linked.