Pope Benedict XVI, born Joseph Alois Ratzinger in 1927,served as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Churchfrom April 2005 through February 2013. Formerly he wasDean of the College of Cardinals, Prefect of theCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and President ofthe International Theological Commission. An outstandingtheologian and teacher, he was one of the founders, alongwith Hans Urs von Balthasar and Henri de Lubac, of theinternational Catholic journal Communio, and he hasalso enjoyed a distinguished teaching career at suchuniversities as T?bingen and Regensburg in his homecountry of Germany.