A pope's choice of a name is a highly personal one, yet a highly public one, as well. Much as a parent carefully selects a name for a newborn baby, a new pope's choice of a name says much about his hopes and dreams for what his tenure as pope will come to mean in the minds and hearts of Catholics and non-Catholics around the world.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger reportedly commented prior to the conclave at which he was elected that he hoped the next pope would call himself Benedict; this would show "a desire to go beyond the Johns and Pauls and Piuses of recent decades to take up the tradition of the past and continue it into the future."

Soon after, he was able to make his hopes a reality, by selecting for himself the name Pope Benedict XVI. Through his choice of name, he wanted, he explains, "to create a spiritual bond with Benedict XV" who was pope from 1914 to 1922. The majority of his pontificate took place during the First World War, and he tried desperately to avert what he called 'the suicide of Europe.' When that failed, he tried just as desperately to help end the war." Among the reasons for choosing Benedict, the Pope said, is "to place my ministry at the service of reconciliation and harmony between persons and peoples."

It is also not a coincidence that the Pope was born and raised in Bavaria, and that Bavaria is home to 17 Benedictine monasteries. He often made his annual retreat at one of them, and there is a tale that he at one time considered becoming a Benedictine himself.

The Pope has also cited two other reasons for his choice to associate his pontificate with Saint Benedict. The first is the role that Benedictines played in spreading Christianity across Europe. When the Roman Empire was close to its end, the Benedicitine order was rising and spreading throughout Europe. Benedictine monasteries were the schools through which the wisdom and learning of the past were spread. Through their labors, the great works of ancient learning and Christianity were preserved, passed from generation to generation in hand-written copies.