80th Birthday of Pope Benedict XVI

A portrait of Pope Benedict XVI; the inscription 'Benedicti XVI P.M. Ætatis anno LXXX∙ CITTÀ DEL VATICANO', the year 2007, the name of designer Daniela Longo, the initials of engraver Maria Carmela Colaneri, and the mint mark 'R'.

Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger ranks among the most influential theologians of the 20th century. As a peritus at the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), he influenced church reforms, but in the following decades became one of the most prominent conservative voices within the worldwide church. As Archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1977 and shortly thereafter as a cardinal, he quickly gained significance beyond his diocese. In 1981, John Paul II appointed him Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — an office Ratzinger held for 23 years, from which he helped shape theological debates worldwide. In April 2005, the College of Cardinals elected him pope; he took the name Benedict XVI. As the first German head of the church in about five hundred years, his pontificate was from the outset associated with a focus on cultural continuity and European Christianity.

Benedict XVI understood his office in strongly theological-intellectual terms: his encyclicals, including "Deus caritas est" (2006) and "Spe salvi" (2007), were widely received and discussed internationally. His stance on Islam, on the secularization of Europe, and on liturgical reform repeatedly sparked global debate. The Vatican, as an issuing state, has a long tradition of accompanying significant pontificates and events in the papal calendar with commemorative coins; for Benedict XVI's 80th birthday in 2007, a corresponding 2-euro commemorative coin of Vatican City was issued. Ratzinger, born in 1927 in Marktl am Inn in Bavaria, became in 2013 the first pope in six centuries to voluntarily resign from office, and lived as pope emeritus in the Vatican until his death in December 2022.