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The papal election: What history teaches us about cardinals

As cardinals gather to choose Pope Benedict  successor XVI, Dr Stella Fletcher, Honorary Researcher at The University of Manchester, uses history to think about how the election will pan out. A historian, she has studied ...

Pope on social networking: the virtual is real

(AP)—Pope Benedict XVI put church leaders on notice Thursday, saying social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter aren't a virtual world they can ignore, but rather a very real world they must engage if they want to ...

An Italian teacher who kills celebrities on Twitter

Fidel Castro, Mikhail Gorbachev and Pope Benedict XVI—Italian Tommasso Debenedetti has killed them all in fake tweets aimed at exposing shoddy journalism that have earned him global notoriety.

Pope draws half a million Twitter followers

Pope Benedict XVI boasted hundreds of thousands of followers on his new Twitter account on Tuesday—just a day after it was unveiled and more than a week before any actual tweets appear.

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Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI (Latin: Benedictus PP. XVI; Italian: Benedetto XVI; German: Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Alois Ratzinger on 16 April 1927) is the 265th and reigning Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the head of the Roman Catholic Church and, as such, Sovereign of the Vatican City State. He was elected on 19 April 2005 in a papal conclave, celebrated his Papal Inauguration Mass on 24 April 2005, and took possession of his cathedral, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, on 7 May 2005. Pope Benedict XVI has both German and Vatican citizenship. He succeeded Pope John Paul II.

Benedict XVI is theologically conservative and his teaching and prolific writings defend traditional Catholic doctrine and values. After a long career as an internationally noted academic, serving as a professor at various German universities, he was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising and cardinal in 1977. In 1981, he settled in Rome when he became Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, one of the most important offices of the Roman Curia. At the time of his election as Pope, he was also Dean of the College of Cardinals, serving as the primus inter pares among the cardinals.

During his papacy, Benedict XVI has emphasized what he sees as a need for Europe to return to fundamental Christian values in response to increasing de-Christianisation and secularisation in many developed countries. For this reason, he proclaims relativism's denial of objective truth—and more particularly, the denial of moral truths—as the central problem of the 21st century. He teaches the importance for the Catholic Church and for humanity of contemplating God's redemptive love and has reaffirmed the "importance of prayer in the face of the activism and the growing secularism of many Christians engaged in charitable work."

Pope Benedict was also the founder and patron of the Ratzinger Foundation, a charitable organisation, which makes money from the sale of books and essays written by the Pope, in order to fund scholarships and bursaries for students across the world.

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