30 years ago, Cardinal Ratzinger left Munich...
February 14, 2012
It was just 30 years ago, on February 14, 1982, that then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger left the Archdiocese of Munich to become prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, notes the L’Osservatore Romano.
The Vatican newspaper reports that Blessed John Paul II first approached Cardinal Ratzinger in 1979 about becoming the prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education. The German prelate resisted the papal suggestion, noting that he had only recently (in 1977) been appointed to the Munich see.
In 1981, Pope John Paul II approached Cardinal Ratzinger again, asking him to be prefect of the Vatican’s top doctrinal agency. The reluctant German cardinal eventually accepted the Pope’s entreaties, and has been working in Rome since that time.
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