Pope Benedict XVI: A Timeline

1927: Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger is born on April 16 in the Bavarian town of Marktl. JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

1943: Joseph Ratzinger is shown as a German Air Force assistant. STF/ AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

1952: Father Ratzinger celebrates an open-air Mass. AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

1959: Father Ratzinger teaches as a professor of dogmatic theology in Freising. AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

n 1962-1965 n 1977 n 1981

1962-1965: Father Ratzinger serves the archbishop of Cologne as a peritus (expert) at the Second Vatican Council. WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

1977: Pope Paul VI elevates Archbishop Ratzinger to cardinal. L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO

1981: Pope John Paul II names Cardinal Ratzinger prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER/VATICAN MEDIA

n 2005 n 2006

2005: Cardinal Ratzinger celebrates the funeral Mass of Pope John Paul II on April 8. VINCENZO PINTO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

2005: Pope Benedict celebrates Mass at World Youth Day in Cologne. PIER PAOLO, POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

2005: Pope Benedict publishes his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love), Dec. 25. IGNATIUS PRESS

2005: Cardinal Ratzinger is elected pope April 19, and he chooses the name Benedict XVI. PATRICK HERTZOG/ AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

2006: Pope Benedict and Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I meet Nov. 29 in Istanbul, Turkey. KAI PFAFFENBACH/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

2008:

2007: Pope Benedict XVI signs his second encyclical, Spe Salvi (Saved Through Hope), Nov. 30. L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Benedict kneels to pray at Ground Zero during a ceremony in New York on April 20. He also visited the White House during his U.S. voyage. KATHY WILLENS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

2009: Pope Benedict publishes his third and last encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), June 29. FRANCO ORIGLIA/ GETTY IMAGES

2009: The Pope publishes Anglicanorum Coetibus on Nov. 4; the apostolic constitution paved the way for Anglican ordinariates in the Church. Three former Anglican bishops, (from l) John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton, who were ordained priests in the Church, established the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in 2012. 2011 PHOTO, CARL DE SOUZA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

2011: Pope Benedict XVI presides over the beatification of Pope John Paul II on May 1. VINCENZO PINTO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

2012:

L’OSSERVATORE

2013: Benedict announces his resignation, effective Feb. 28, on Feb. 11. He is shown departing the Vatican on Feb. 28. ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

2014: Benedict begins to attend public events at the Vatican, including a consistory in February, the canonization of John Paul II and John XXIII in April and the opening of the Holy Door the following year. FRANCO ORIGLIA/ GETTY IMAGES

2015: Benedict tells a German newspaper he wanted to be referred to as ‘Father Benedict.’ The Vatican clarifies Dec. 5 that he would be referred to as ‘pope emeritus.’ VATICAN POOL/ GETTY IMAGES

Pope Benedict XVI meets with former communist revolutionary and Cuban President Fidel Castro at the Vatican embassy on March 29 in Havana.

ROMANO VATICAN POOL/GETTY IMAGES

2013: Pope Benedict departs the Vatican Feb. 28 for his residence at the Monastery of Mater Ecclesiae. Pope Francis visits him there on May 2. CNA PHOTO

2016: A book-length interview of the pope emeritus is published worldwide, one of a small number of interviews and essays that would be published occasionally during his retirement.

2020: Benedict visits his native Germany for four days in June to see his ailing brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, who dies the following week.

2022: At a Dec. 28 Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis announces that Benedict is ‘very ill’ and asks those gathered to pray for ‘the Lord to console him and to sustain him in this testimony of love for the Church until the end.’

2020: On Sept. 4, Benedict becomes the longest-living person to have held the office of pope. NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER/ VATICAN MEDIA

2021: The pope emeritus marks the 70th anniversary of his priestly ordination on June 29. NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER/VATICAN MEDIA

2022: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI dies at 9:34am Rome time on Dec. 31, at 95 years of age. ANTONIO MASIELLO/GETTY IMAGES

ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

SVEN HOPPE/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER/VATICAN MEDIA