In the countdown to Benedict XVI's 85th birthday and the seventh anniversary of his Pontificate last year, one of the most useful and timely resources was his brother Georg's memoir about the Pope which was immediately published in English, French and Spanish after it was first released in German. This review of the book by a UK blogger includes a few excerpts with information that was not previously available. Worth re-posting as we count down now to our beloved Benedict's 86th birthday and the eighth anniversary of his election as Pope..
Brother Georg says reform of the liturgy
is a focal point for Benedict XVI
April 10, 2012
No one knows Pope Benedict XVI better than his own brother, Mgr Georg Ratzinger. In fact, this man is the only person living who has known and loved the present Pope since the very moment of his birth, on 16 April 1927. They have shared a life together – even to the point of being ordained priests at the same liturgy.
Benedict XVI himself has said of Georg: “[from] the beginning of my life, my brother has always been for me not only a companion, but a trustworthy guide … he has been a point of orientation and reference … [h]e has always shown me the path to take, even in difficult situations.”
For this reason, Georg Ratzinger’s recently published book,
My Brother, the Pope, is a must for all those who wish to know more about those early “experiences that shaped some of the thinking of Pope Benedict XVI” (as George Weigel put it in his review of the work).
Not only does it paint an intimate portrait of the Ratzinger family, and of Joseph Ratzinger’s childhood and early life,
My Brother, the Pope also reveals, in quite a candid way, Georg Ratzinger's unique view as to what Pope Benedict XVI’s most pressing goals are as the successor of St Peter.
I bought a copy of
My Brother, the Pope on Holy Saturday, and dipped into it over Easter Sunday – it is absolutely fascinating! The book consists of a series of reflections by Georg Ratzinger, who himself has had a successful clerical and musical career.
His reminiscences and musings are mainly given as answers - sometimes very long ones - to questions posed by the Church historian, Michael Hesemann. Published in German late last year,
My Brother, the Pope has been available to English readers since March 2012. (For those who can get to London, it is currently on sale at St Pauls bookshop.)
Georg Ratzinger’s words paint a vivid picture of the childhood he shared with his brother and the rest of the Ratzinger family – a childhood that the Pope himself has already touched upon his own autobiography (written as Cardinal Ratzinger),
Milestones: Memoirs 1927 – 1977.
Georg, though, goes into much more detail concerning the simple day-to-day Bavarian life that he and his family enjoyed in the years prior to the Second World War. He also provides a glimpse into a Catholic world that was unashamedly joyful and liturgically awe-inspiring.
These were the days before the Modernist devotees of the so-called “spirit of Vatican II” had managed to purge the Church’s liturgy of its joy, colour, excitement and tradition. It was a time when Catholicism was proud of its God-given heritage.
The Pope’s father, also called Joseph, was a policeman – a job that often meant transfers from one town or village to another. The older Joseph Ratzinger was a particularly devout man, who also sang in church choirs, and who detested the Nazis when they appeared on the scene in 1930s Germany.
Georg mentions in his book that he, his mother, and siblings were often worried about his father’s safety – it seems that being a rural policeman was a hazardous occupation at that time. Everyday, the Ratzinger children and their mother, Maria, would pray for Joseph Ratzinger senior’s safe return home, especially if he was out working a night shift.
Here is part of what the Pope’s brother recalls about those times of family prayer:
From our parents we learned what it means to have a firm grasp of faith in God. Every day we prayed together, and in fact before and after each meal (we ate our breakfast, dinner, and supper together).
The main prayer time was after the midday dinner, when the particular concerns of the family were expressed. Part of it was a prayer to Saint Dismas, the “good thief”, a former criminal who was crucified together with Jesus on Mount Calvary, repented on the cross, and begged the Lord for mercy. We prayed to him, the patron of repentant thieves, to protect Father from professional troubles.
…Father often worked at night, and then it could happen that he was held up, for whatever reasons, and came home later. Then, naturally, we children and Mother were anxious and prayed that nothing had happened to him …
When we were children, our parents also put us to bed and prayed our evening prayers with us. They used a special form of blessing and repeated it three times [one for each child] … This was followed by a rather expansive blessing. Once I asked my father what it meant, but all he used to say to me was, "I do not know exactly either. My father and mother used to pray this prayer at my bedside."
The Ratzingers would also pray the Rosary most days at home, though went to church to pray it during October, the month of the Holy Rosary. The two boys, Georg and Joseph, also attended – and served at – the 6.00am daily Mass in their local church.
There is a beautiful passage in
My Brother, the Pope, which describes the thrill both boys felt when attending the early morning Rorate Masses during Advent:
After we started school, we used to attend these Masses in the early morning, before classes began. Outside it was still night, everything was dark, and the people often shivered in the cold. Yet the warm glow of the sanctuary compensated for the early rising and the walk through the snow and ice. The dark church illuminated by candles and tapers, which were often brought by the faithful and provided not only light but a little warmth … These Rorate Masses were wonderful signposts leading us to Christmas.
In his book, Georg Ratzinger describes the wonderful liturgies and devotions that meant so much to the faithful before many were swept away by the post-Conciliar changes, or “reforms”.
In describing the piety that surrounded the Ratzinger family’s celebration of Christmas, he revealed that the Pope “still has the little family manger scene with the tuff stones from Tittmoning; it is set up at Christmastime in the dining room of his apartment in the Apostolic Palace.”
My Brother, the Pope also contains several passages that describe those ancient Catholic traditions of Bavaria that helped the people to celebrate Easter, Candlemas and the May devotions, as well as other festivals and saints days.
Reflecting on the post-Easter Vigil (held on Holy Saturday morning in those days) “celebration of the Resurrection”, Georg Ratzinger paints a wonderful portrait of the sheer joy that seemed more present in pre-Vatican II liturgies:
…[T]he church was darkened; all the church windows were draped with black cloth. Then the pastor, in festive vestments and cope, sang “Christ is risen” three times, to which the choir responded, the third time, “Alleluia!” Actually the priests are supposed to sing each time in a higher key, but most pastors could not distinguish the keys, since they were not that musical, either. Someone stood at each window to let the drapes fall as soon as the pastor intoned the third “Christ is risen.”
In Aschau, my brother and I did that, too, for a time. Then spring sunshine poured into the church and created a Paschal mood. Finally, another procession took place, during which the church choir sang an Easter motet … This procession with the Most Blessed Sacrament under the “heaven”, as we called the baldachin, with lots of incense, was always a very festive occasion, which contributed to bringing the good news of the Resurrection deep into the hearts of believers.
Another tradition that Georg Ratzinger mentions in his book is the "Mount of Olives devotion" that was usually held on Thursdays throughout Lent. This act of worship involved a long sermon, silence, prayer and music. As Mgr Ratzinger recounts, “In the midst of that silence, the large church bell then rang, which lent an impressive tone to the whole thing.”
He goes on to describe how these devotions could be rather humorous a times:
In Dorfen, where I served for four years as an assistant pastor (from 1953 to 1957), there was a Baroque Mount of Olives. Christ was depicted as praying on it. During the devotion, the sacristan then used a crank to lower from the ceiling an angel that was hanging on a rope, with chalice in his hand, so as to strengthen Jesus for his future suffering and death.
Back then, in the Baroque period, as we know, they liked to stage things graphically like that. But it sometimes happened that the crank did not work, and the angel literally plummeted from heaven. But in spite of that, these Mount of Olives devotions were always a beautiful and moving way to celebrate Lent.
Needless to say, there are many fascinating and important insights into Pope Benedict XVI’s early life in
My Brother, the Pope – so why dwell in this post only on these liturgical memories from Georg and Joseph Ratzinger’s childhood and young adulthood?
The answer is simply that, as Mgr Georg Ratzinger himself reveals - in answer to a question by Hesemann - towards the end of his book, the “focal point” of his brother’s pontificate is his desire to see “the liturgy ... celebrated worthily and that it be celebrated correctly.”
If we consider Joseph Ratzinger’s seminal work on worship in the Roman Rite,
The Spirit of the Liturgy, then it won't surprise many to know that, according to his brother at least, liturgical reform is at the heart of this present Pope’s mission.
He truly wishes to lead a reform of the so-called reforms initiated by those who claimed to speak for Vatican II. As Georg Ratzinger says: “There are so many priests who think they have to add something [to the liturgy] here and change something there. So my brother wants an orderly, good liturgy that moves people interiorly and is understood as a call from God.”
Pope Benedict XVI has already liberated the ancient liturgy of the Roman Rite from its unjust imprisonment with the publication of his Motu Proprio,
Summorum Pontificum.
Liturgically speaking, he has also led by example in many ways – always celebrating his Masses facing a large crucifix, introducing a better English translation of the Mass, insisting on Gregorian chants and beautiful sacred music, and reviving some of the papal ceremonial's older traditions.
But will this type of gradual reform be effective, especially as far too many Church leaders just seem to be ignoring the Pope's efforts? Isn’t it time now for the Holy Father to start using the office that God has given to him as a means of imposing liturgical reform on the Church? Isn’t it time for him to use that unique authority that Our Lord gave to Peter?
The Pope knows that the people of God desire to worship the Lord through beautiful liturgy - those traditions which sustained our ancestors remain popular amongst the faithful. In that sense, I am sure that he will do more to help us rediscover our liturgical heritage.
Pope Benedict XVI's pontificate will - in one way or another - help Latin-rite Catholics worship God in that ageless spirit which is both splendid and truly worthy of the faith of our fathers.
