Thanks to Ann for calling my attention to this delightful anecdote. I don't always check ZENIT everyday...
A true Bavarian
by EDWARD PENTIN
ROME, JUNE 24, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Among Benedict XVI's many friends, those from Bavaria are most probably the ones who know him best.
One of them is Professor Hanna Barbara Gerl-Falkowitz, chair of philosophy and comparative religion at the University of Dresden, who has known the Pope since before he was made archbishop of Munich and Freising, when he was simply Professor Joseph Ratzinger.
Last month, while in Rome to take part in a conference on the Catholic philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand, she shared with me some insights into his character. In particular, she recalled a particular amusing anecdote of when they first met.
Gerl-Falkowitz was hosting a conference for 300 people and had invited the then-Professor Ratzinger to speak on Romano Guardini, the great German Catholic intellectual whom Joseph Ratzinger has long admired.
The venue was Rothenfels Castle, high up on a mountainside near the Bavarian city of Wurzburg. "It was 1976," Gerl-Falkowitz recalls. "I remember the year exactly because he [Professor Ratzinger] became archbishop of Munich one year later.
"I had sent a helper to collect him from the train, and this man came back saying: 'There's no Professor Ratzinger, I didn't see him.' But I had a castle full of 300 people and I was pulling my hair out, running around in total despair. You need to know that the castle was situated on a steep rock-face.
"Well after about 20 minutes, I stood on the ridge and next to me was a hedge that began to move. Then, first I saw a bag, then two hands, and then the white hair -- he was already white-haired by then -- of Professor Ratzinger. He was sweating, forcing himself through the hedge. He'd climbed the very steep hill just to find the castle. I wanted to disappear into the earth! But he was very kind and very smiling. He said:
'Ascensio in montem sacrum' which means: 'To ascend the holy mountain.'
"He was hinting at Guardini because he enabled this castle to be used for German Catholic youth. That was my first encounter with Joseph Ratzinger -- his hair unkempt, paper flying around and totally out of sorts. I don't know whether he remembers it, but I do. It was terrible though -- to be invited to give a speech and there's no one to collect you!"
Gerl-Falkowitz has great admiration for the Holy Father, and continues to be amazed at his strength of character.
"He's very strong," she says. "I was always astonished that, with all that was happening around him, with all his activities, the man can pray with such an incredible concentration. It means he's really close to the Lord -- that is my impression. And he's very simple. All his intelligence is only a kind of casing around a very deep and precious simplicity.
"The first impression one always has is that he's a bit shy and that is correct, he comes from a part of Bavaria -- old Bavaria -- where people are shy. There is this type of Bavarian who is loud and likes drinking and so on -- that's the official image of the region. But in old Bavaria they are timid, shy -- they don't speak so much but are grounded, very deep and pious."
Gerl-Falkowitz says the recent crisis in the Church has caused the Holy Father to "suffer a lot" and "really knocked him down." But "he's a strong believer," she adds, and has no doubt that his strength of character and faith will see him through the storms.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/06/2010 14:20]