BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

With thanks to Beatrice as usual for leading me to this item - which is about an interview with Mons. Georg Ratzinger looking towards
the tenth anniversary of Benedict XVI's apostolic visit to Bavaria in 2006. Living abroad, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI always subscribed
to the Passauer Neue Presse which he considered his 'hometown' newspaper since its local sections cover all the places he has called home.



The headline shocked me - "Pope Benedict has problems walking and talking (sprechen)"! but then the teaser item itself which introduces the interview has a different headline which says, "Pope Benedict has problems walking and with his voice (Stimme)", which is, of course, less alarming. And further on, it quotes Mons. Ratzinger as saying his brother has difficulties with his voice, not with speaking.

We all watched and heard him deliver the first words he has ever said in public since his retirement at the Vatican ceremony last June to mark his 65th anniversary as a priest, at which time there certainly didn't seem to be anything wrong with his voice, his speech (i.e., the way he talks), his delivery, and his trademark print-ready extemporaneity.

We can only hope that whatever difficulties he has with his voice mean nothing serious. The increasing difficulty with walking and just moving about is more worrisome, and to him, it must certainly be most frustrating for someone who always walked so briskly and elegantly.

On the tenth anniversary of
Benedict's visit to Bavaria
Interview by Karl Birkenseer
Translated from

September 2, 2016

"Optimistically, I must say, both of us are doing well, even if, of course, time takes its toll and leaves its mark," says the brother of emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, in an interview published Friday, Sept. 2, in the Passauer Neue Presse.

Mons. Georg Ratzinger, 92, adds that while both of them have problems with walking, his brother has greater difficulty with his voice but sees better than he does.

Mons. Ratzinger underscores above all his brother's work as a theologian. "In general, the faith has lost much ground, while scientific thinking has been given disproportionate weight. But as a theologian, my brother showed that there is no contradiction between the two, but that faith and reason challenge and complement each other".

In one week we mark the tenth anniversary of the start of Pope Benedict XVI's Apostolic Visit to Bavaria in 2006. His brother, Georg Ratzinger, former Domkapellmeister of the Cathedral of Regensburg, recalls that visit with their hometown newspaper.

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Herr Domkapellmeister, you spent a few weeks this summer with your brother, the Emeritus Pope, in Rome. How are you both doing in terms of your health?
Optimistically, I must say, both of us are doing well, even if, of course, time takes its toll and leaves its mark. It spares no one...

Pope Benedict visited Bavaria from Sept 9-14 in 2006. Do you and your brother still have vivid memories of this?
Our memories are vivid interiorly but we rarely speak about it.

The visit was made to the pope's three 'home dioceses' - Passau, Munich and Regensburg. Why exactly are these three dioceses home to him?
Because we spent a great part of our life in these places. My brother was born in 1927 in Marktl, which belongs to the diocese of Passau, and so does Pleiskirchen where I was born in 1924. Afterwards, Tittmoning, in the diocese of Munich, was an important station for our family, and then Traunstein where we lived a long time.

Regensburg played an important role for both of us professionally - for my brother as a university professor, and for myself, as the director of the cathedral choir [the world-famous Regensburger Domspaetzen].

The visit began in Munich. From the airport, the first stop was most especially the Mariensäule (Marian Pillar) in the city center. In short, your brother paid his respects first to the Mother of God, Patroness of Bavaria...
Even if my brother was not directly involved in planning the details of the visit, it was his heart's desire to visit the Mariensäule and there to entrust Bavaria once more to the protection of the Mother of God.

The following day, Sunday, there was a huge open-air Mass in the Munich fairgrounds. In his homily, the Pope already struck the major theme in almost all his homilies during the visit and of his Pontificate - faith and reason...
Yes, because it is a fact that in general, faith has lost much ground while scientific thinking has gained a disproportionate weight. As a theologian, my brother sought to show that there should be no contradiction between the two, but rather, that they challenge and complement each other.

After Munich, it was Altoetting - again dedicated to the Mother of God - and Marktl. There was another big open-air Mass in Altoetting in which you took part. What do you remember about that?
I had stayed overnight at the Capuchin monastery. I was with the man who usually accompanied me at the time, Prof. Franc Mussner who died this year. We were the only ones who were allowed to attend the Mass with our walking canes. Canes and umbrellas were prohibited for security reasons, but we were obviously not dangerous persons.

The Mass was a beautiful festive event. On the altar stage, I was first given a seat that was under the sun, but Prof. Mussner took me to a seat that was in the shade.

The Pope brought a special gift for the Black Madonna of Altoetting - his cardinal's ring that you had given him. Could you describe it?
Not in detail, not anymore. My sister Maria and I had bought it in 1977 from Baumann's (an antique dealer) in Regensburg. [That would have been the year their younger brother was named Archbishop of Munich, and shortly thereafter, cardinal.]] I only know it had a gemstone but I do not remember now what kind. The ring was a gift from the heart, and my brother treasured it most specially. [The ring is prominent in the first official photograph of Benedict XVI that the Vatican sent to Nunciatures and dioceses around the world. It was obviously taken before the Mass inaugurating his Petrine ministry during which he formally received the Ring of the Fisherman.]



Later, of course, he wore the Fisherman's Ring, and we thought about what would happen with the cardinal's ring when he dies. Thus, the idea to offer it to the Madonna of Altoetting. My brother was convinced it was the best place for it...

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[Unfortunately, the complete interview is available only in the paper edition of the newspaper or to online subscribers. I hope one of the Georg Gaenswein sites will post the whole interview.]



To get back to the subject of the Emeritus Pope's infirmities, about which I am particularly sensitive because of all the derision directed at him over why he renounced the papacy: These are the age-related infirmities that can afflict an 89-year-old man, infirmities about which, if he was still Pope, the media - and thereby, public opinion - would not have looked on with the kindness and consideration that had been given John Paul II in the final years of his degenerative illness.

Infirmities that critics of his renunciation do not take into account when they mock his reasons of health, or even the specific example he gave of being unable to make any more transcontinental trips. Why would he risk spoiling a big event like WYD by falling ill or having a worse health emergency that would detract from the event itself and even spoil it?

By the same token, if he had continued to be pope, it would have been selfish to require the obvious assistance he now needs to move around and walk, if he had to be assisted just to move at and around the altar when celebrating a liturgy in public. He is the last person in the world to want to have to distract from the liturgy!

One of these critics wrote, in relentless 'Benedict-made-Bergoglio-possible' mode: "He could still have gone on being pope and simply omitted being seen in public". Was he serious? Then the distraction would have been endless speculation about why we don't see him in public anymore, what's really wrong with him, if he's no longer able to carry out his public duties as pope, why does he not resign, who's really running the Church now, etc. Well, he spared us from all that, but his unkindest critics also say, "Spared us for what? To have made Bergoglio Pope???"

But I bet none of these critics would insist that their 86-year-old parent continue to carry out a superhuman job until they die - it is not just about the physical effort it takes, but to be blunt about it, think of what public indignities they risk just because old age generates circumstances that are beyond personal control. Yet Benedict's critics would wish it on him, not on their own kin!

When it was first reported that he would not celebrate the concluding Mass for his Schuelerkreis reunion this year, I kept hoping it was a false report. But as it turned out, it wasn't, and that is really very troubling. What physical faculty has so deteriorated in him, or what new physical condition has developed, that he was unable to do it?

If all this could happen within three years of a retirement that seems, from all accounts, to be undemanding (or at least, when he does only what he feels he is able to do), it might all have been accelerated if he had not retired. Then, the media game would have been: "He's obviously no longer capable - Benedict should resign and give way to someone younger".