Who he was
The son of a Bavarian police officer, he lived through the Nazi years as a boy and was ordained with his brother Georg in 1951. A distinguished theologian, he taught at several German universities and served as an adviser at the Second Vatican Council. He was Archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1977 and then, for over twenty years, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under St John Paul II.
What he is remembered for
He chaired the commission that drafted the Catechism of the Catholic Church before his election, and as pope wrote the encyclicals Deus caritas est, Spe salvi and Caritas in veritate. In February 2013 he announced that his strength no longer allowed him to carry out the ministry and renounced the papacy. He spent his remaining years at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican, where he died aged ninety-five.
Sources
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