Romfilatelia, the specialized company in issuing and trading Romanian postage stamps, is releasing a new philatelic issue meant to mark the beginning of a new Pontificate.
We have heard the phrase “Habemus Papam” from the balcony of the Pontifical Palace not long after the moment when the white smoke came out through the Vatican chimney and the bells started to ring; this was the sign the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church had been chosen.
The German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger chose the name Benedict XVI, at the end of one of the shortest conclaves from the last centuries, which was actually the first conclave of the millennium.
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI is the 8th Pope of German origin in the history of papacy; he was born on April 16th 1927, in the German town Marktl am Inn.
In 1951 he was ordained as a priest and in 1997 he became the Bishop of Munich; a few months later he was proclaimed as a cardinal by the Pope Paul VI. He has a prodigious university career, since he used to be a professor of fundamental and dogmatic theology within various German universities.
In 1993 he became a cardinal-bishop, titular of the Velletri Church in a Rome suburb, and afterwards he was chosen to be the Dean of the Holy College and, in this position, he organized the burial of Pope John II. The same College, gathered as a conclave, chose him as the new Pope on April 19th 2005.
During his first general audience from Saint Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict XVI emphasized that “the Christian roots of Europe may not be forgotten” and he promised to “to act in the name of reconciliation and peace”.
The beginning of the new Pontificate of the Catholic Church is an occasion that Romfilatelia celebrates by releasing a two-postage stamp issue. The background reproduces the cupola of the Saint Peter Basilica and the two stamps suggest the transformation of the Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger into Pope Benedict XVI.
