POPE Benedict XVI's early life has been laid bare in an authorised biography narrated by his favourite pet cat, Chico.Aimed at children, the book, entitled Joseph and Chico, even has a preface written by Pope Benedict's secretary, Father Georg Ganswein - a further ringing endorsement.
The book details his early life in Bavaria as Joseph Ratzinger, a trainee priest, and ends with his election as leader of the Roman Catholic Church in April 2005.
It also tells of his time fighting as a young man in the German army late in the Second World War.
In the foreword, Fr Ganswein writes: "Joseph and Chico, that's the title of the book you are about to read, a book which will tell the life story of a unique person in the world - the Holy Father.
"But here, dear children, you will find a biography very different to others, because telling the story is a cat and it's not every day that a cat can call the Holy Father his friend and write his story.
"They have known each other for years and the things Chico has to say are truly interesting, obviously bearing in mind that his point of view is that of a cat."
The nine-year-old ginger tom divides its time between the Papal apartments in the Vatican City and the Pope's native Germany.
Chico tells of Pope Benedict's controversial membership of the Hitler Youth and his involvement with the German army.
He recalls: "While Joseph and Georg [the Pope's elder brother] near their future in the Church, a tragedy is developing in Germany that will shake the world.
"I am talking about Nazism, one of the most dramatic and shameful moments in the history of Man.
"In that period Joseph [Pope Benedict] was forced to do something completely against his will: enter the army and leave for war.
First Joseph was sent to defend a factory making aeroplane motors, then he had to prepare barricades in case of an attack by tanks.
"When the war ended, he found himself in a prisoner of war camp along with 50,000 prisoners, forced to live in the open with just a piece of bread and soup a day.''
Yesterday, the author Jeanne Perego said: "When Pope Benedict was elected I was in Germany and I had an idea to write on the origins of his life. It's a biography of his life for children. What I needed to convey to younger readers was something they could associate with, so I had the idea of Chico, the Pope's cat - and I even met him. He's a lovely ginger tom."
The current Pontiff has porcelain statues of cats dotted around his home in the Vatican.
The 44-page book costs 12 and is out next week in bookshops in Italy.
The publishers may later release it worldwide.
Of the death of Pope John Paul II and Benedict's election, Chico says: "On the 2 April, 2005 Pope John Paul died. The pain for Joseph was immense because he not only lost his best friend but his boss."
A spokeswoman for the publisher, Padua-based Messaggero di Sant'Antonio, said: "It's a highly original way to provide a biography of the Pope's life.
"Pope Benedict has approved of it and read the text, otherwise his personal assistant, Father Georg, would not have written the foreword."
MILITARY CAREER ENDED IN PRISON CAMP
FOLLOWING his 14th birthday in 1941, Joseph Ratzinger was enrolled in the Hitler Youth - membership being legally required after December 1939 - but was apparently an unenthusiastic member.
His father was a bitter enemy of Nazism, believing it conflicted with the Catholic faith.
At around the same time in 1941, one of Ratzinger's cousins, a 14-year-old boy with Down's syndrome, was killed by the Nazi regime in its campaign of eugenics.
In 1943, while still in seminary, he was drafted at age 16 into the German anti-aircraft corps.
Ratzinger then trained in the German infantry, but a subsequent illness precluded him from the usual rigours of military duty.
As the Allied front drew closer to his post in 1945, he deserted back to his family's home in Traunstein after his unit had ceased to exist, just as American troops established their headquarters in the Ratzinger household.
As a German soldier, he was put in a POW camp but released a few months later at the end of the war in summer 1945.
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