Rome, Italy — The man who has become Pope Benedict XVI was a product of wartime Germany, but also a deeply Catholic region, Bavaria.
As the Nazis strengthened their stranglehold on Germany in the 1930s, the devoutly Catholic family of Joseph Ratzinger moved frequently between villages in rural Bavaria.
The Roman Catholic Church, Ratzinger recalled, was his bulwark against the Nazi regime, serving as "a citadel of truth and righteousness against the realm of atheism and deceit."
But he could not avoid the realities of the day. Ratzinger was briefly a member of the Hitler Youth in his early teens, after it became mandatory in 1941, according to a biography by John L. Allen Jr., who covers the Vatican for the National Catholic Reporter.
In 1943 he and fellow seminarians were drafted. He deserted in 1945 and returned home but was captured by U.S. soldiers and held as a prisoner of war for several months, Allen wrote.
Along his way to the papacy, he built a distinguished academic career as a theologian, and then spent nearly a quarter-century as Pope John Paul II's theological visionary and enforcer of strict positions on doctrine, morality and the primacy of the faith.
His experience under the Nazis he was 18 when the war ended was formative in his view of the function of the church, Allen said.
"Having seen fascism in action, Ratzinger today believes that the best antidote to political totalitarianism is ecclesiastical totalitarianism," he wrote. "In other words, he believes the Catholic church serves the cause of human freedom by restricting freedom in its internal life, thereby remaining clear about what it teaches and believes."
Critics cite a long list of theologians Ratzinger has chastised for straying from official doctrine; his condemnation of "relativism," or the belief that other denominations and faiths lead equally to salvation; his denunciation of liberation theology, homosexuality and feminism; his attempt to rein in national bishops conferences; his belief that the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, which led to a near-revolutionary modernization of the church, has brought corrosive excesses.
Along with Bavaria and Nazism, a third influence helped shape the future pope: the leftist-inspired student unrest of the 1960s at the dawn of domestic German terrorism. He said it made him realize that, sometimes, there is no room for discussion.
Even before becoming the supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, Ratzinger wielded immense power. He was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the former Holy Office.
John Paul appointed him in 1981. It was a deeply personal choice, made without his usual wide consultation.
The cardinal expanded the power of the role, ruling on a wide range of subjects. He was the first professional theologian in the job in more than a century.
John Paul was said to have given Ratzinger wide latitude; some called him the "vice pope." Other Vatican officials have suggested that he served as a lightning rod for criticism of the pope.