Joseph Ratzinger was born in Catholic Bavaria in 1927. As a youngster he witnessed war's 'gates of hell' in Nazi Germany. After the war he became a priest of Munich diocese and later a theologian, university professor and rising academic star. He rose to prominence as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican and was elected Pope at 78 years old. This biography penetrates the popular stereotyping of Joseph Ratzinger, to reveal the truth, complexity and thought of this very modest and pious theologian. Here we discover a 'humble and thoroughly kind man', a leading thinker of his time, very much in touch with this modern age.