Old Oscott is an area of Great Barr, Birmingham, England (previously in the parish of Handsworth, Staffordshire). The suburb forms a triangle bounded to the north by Pheasey, to the west by Perry Beeches, and to the east by Kingstanding. The Birmingham City Council ward that covers the area is called simply Oscott.

The area has been known locally as "Old" Oscott since St. Mary's College, the Roman Catholic seminary, moved to a new site in an area that became known as New Oscott.

Old Oscott is not a very well known name, and people tend to simply treat the district as part of Great Barr, or consider it to be the western "private" half of Kingstanding.

The area was mostly developed between 1920 and 1960, with a mix of both private and council housing.

Coordinates: 52°32′49″N 1°53′37″W / 52.54696°N 1.89355°W / 52.54696; -1.89355

Benedict XVI (Latin: Benedictus PP. XVI; Italian: Benedetto XVI; German: Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger on 16 April 1927) is the 265th Pope, a position in which he serves dual roles as Sovereign of the Vatican City State and leader of the Catholic Church. As pope he is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter. Benedict XVI was elected on 19 April 2005 in a papal conclave, celebrated his Papal Inauguration Mass on 24 April 2005, and took possession of his cathedral, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, on 7 May 2005. A native of Bavaria, Pope Benedict XVI has both German and Vatican citizenship.

After a long career as an academic, serving as a professor of theology at various German universities—the last being the University of Regensburg—he was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising and cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1977. In 1981, he settled in Rome when he became Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, one of the most important dicasteries of the Roman Curia. From 2002 until his election as Pope, he was also Dean of the College of Cardinals, and as such the primus inter pares among the cardinals. Prior to becoming Pope, he was "a major figure on the Vatican stage for a quarter of a century" as "one of the most respected, influential and controversial members of the College of Cardinals"; he had an influence "second to none when it came to setting church priorities and directions" as one of Pope John Paul II's closest confidants.