Forty years ago Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was known as a progressive radical. In 1963 he wrote the now well-known speech for Cardinal Joseph Frings, Archbishop of Cologne, which denounced the Holy Office as a "cause of scandal to the world" during the Second Vatican Council. Because of this, Paul VI instructed the Congregation to reverse its priorities and encourage good theology rather than come down on bad theology.

Cardinal Ratzinger appears to have been frightened into conservative orthodoxy by a vision of anarchy he experienced during student unrest and Marxism at Tubingen university where he was teaching, alongside Professor Hans Kung, in 1968. Kung remained liberal, and had his teaching licence removed for his pains.

Cardinal Ratzinger was born in Bavaria, the son of an anti-Nazi police officer. Although forced to join Hitler Youth, he was not an enthusiastic member and after a posting to Hungary during his service in the anti-aircraft corps he deserted, risking punisment by death. He was captured by the Allies, released and entered seminary with his brother George who told a German newspaper earlier this month that he 'has not got a chance'.

His first dissertation was on St Augustine and his second on St Bonaventure. After his time at Tubingen, he returned to Regensburg university in Bavaria. At the Second Vatican Council, from 1962 to 1965, he served as the chief theological expert to Cardinal Frings. He went on to found the influential theological and journal Communio and in 1977 became Archbishop of Munich, being named a Cardinal by Pope Paul VI that summer. He was one of the three cardinals appointed by Paul VI who were eligible to vote in this conclave.

In 1981 he became Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly the Inquisition, where he earned the nickname "The Enforcer", and Dean of the College of Cardinals in 2002. He and the late Pope were referred to as "intellectual bedfellows".

Pope Benedict XVI is the eighth German pope. His accomplishments are many, he speaks ten languages and likes to play Beethoven on the piano.

But it is in his enforcement of Church doctrine that he has made so many enemies around the world. He said it was "an enormous mistake" to allow Turkey to join the European Union, has described rock music as a "vehicle of anti-religion" and believes cloning is a more serious threat to humanity than weapons of mass destruction. He believes the ban on women priests is necessary to safeguard doctrine, is against multiculturalism and believes that the Church of England is not a proper church. Other religions he regards as deficient and homosexuality in his view is an "intrinsic moral evil".

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