Benedict XVI celebrates
a 'very Bavarian' birthday
by DANIELA PETROFF and NICOLE WINFIELD
VATICAN CITY, April 16 (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI celebrated a very Bavarian birthday Monday, marking his 85 years with his brother, German bishops and a musical band from his native land.
Benedict began the day with a Mass in which he alluded to his own mortality, saying he would carry on his final years knowing that God was watching over him.
"I am facing the final leg of the path of my life and I don't know what's ahead," Benedict said in his homily. "I know though that God's light is there ... and that his light is stronger than every darkness."
Benedict was later joined in the Vatican's frescoed Clementine Hall by about 150 Bavarians, including bishops, political leaders and representatives of the region's Protestant and Jewish communities.
He was serenaded by 10 children dressed in traditional Bavarian garb who danced for him and recited a poem, and by Bavarian musicians who performed a song he and his siblings sang as children while their father accompanied them on a zither.
A very emotional Pope said those gathered "represent for me the stations of my life." Speaking off-the-cuff, he singled out the role played by the Jewish community in Bavaria for "bringing me closer emotionally to the Jewish people."
Sitting nearby was Benedict's older brother Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, who was ordained on the same day as the Pope in 1951 and flew to Rome for this week's celebrations, which also include the seventh anniversary of Benedict's election as Pope, on Thursday.
Despite his age and increasing frailty — he has begun using a cane on occasion — Benedict has quashed speculation of a possible resignation. On Sunday, he asked for prayers and strength "to fulfill the mission (the Lord) entrusted to me."
Cardinal Angelo Sodano issued birthday greetings on behalf of the College of Cardinals that elected Benedict, and welcomed the Bavarian bishops to the "family party" inside the Apostolic Palace.
Speaking in Latin, Sodano wished Benedict "many happy years" ahead — sentiments that were echoed in birthday greetings that arrived from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Queen Elizabeth II and Italy's president.
Right photo: Marktl townspeople at the font where Joseph Ratzinger was baptized four hours after he was born.
In Benedict's hometown of Marktl Am Inn, the faithful marked his birthday by rising at 4:15 a.m. — the time he was born — and walking from his house to the local church for prayers.
He received several gifts, including a large crucifix, a Maypole, a traditional Bavarian Easter basket and a bunch of white flowers.
One birthday gift arrived ahead of time: a book of 20 essays by prominent Germans reflecting on the papacy, including German football great Franz Beckenbauer, who recalled meeting the Pope a few months before Germany hosted the 2006 World Cup.
Beckenbauer said the two differed over what kind of shape Germany's squad was in, with the Pope suggesting it was "pretty good."
"I didn't have the same idea; and so I told him that at the very least they were on the right path to becoming good," Beckenbauer wrote. "He smiled kindly."
The book was curated by Benedict's longtime secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein. In an interview Monday with Italy's
La Repubblica daily, Gaenswein said the Pope is often misconstrued and should be known as a man of great courage.
"The German Pope doesn't fear delicate questions or confrontations for the good of the Church and faithful," he said.
CNS has additional color in its report...
‘I don’t know what awaits me',
says Pope on 85th birthday
By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY, April 16 (CNS) - Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his 85th birthday today with guests who treated him to Bavarian “oompah” music and folk dancing in the apostolic palace.
Earlier in the day, in an impromptu homily, the Pope had said: “I find myself on the last stretch of my journey in life, and I don’t know what is awaiting me.”
“I know, however, that the light of God exists, that he is risen, that his light is stronger than any darkness and that God’s goodness is stronger than any evil in this world, and this helps me go forward with certainty,” he said.
Later Bavarian bishops, minister-president of Bavaria Horst Seehofer and a 150-person regional government delegation visited the Pope in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall.
They were accompanied by a small Bavarian band, three female singers and 10 children who danced the skirt-swirling, shoe-stomping, thigh-slapping “Schuhplattler” before the Pope.
The Pope’s 88-year-old brother, Msgr Georg Ratzinger, also attended the festivities as well as representatives from the Lutheran Church and the Jewish community in Bavaria.
The children, dressed in traditional costume, presented the Pope with white flowers and a maypole covered with colourful ribbons. They also recited a German birthday poem.
The delegation presented the Pope with gifts of a wooden crucifix sculpted by a well-known 18th-century Bavarian woodcarver, Ignaz Gunther, and a large Easter basket filled with traditional cakes, dark bread, ham and painted eggs.
In his address to the Pope, Mr Seehofer said Bavaria was still the most Catholic region in Germany and that it was still common to find the crucifix hung in public schools and small roadside shrines maintained throughout the area.
“You’ve always stayed Bavarian and we’re very grateful for that,” he told the Pope.
Among the guests were all seven of Bavaria’s Catholic bishops, including Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising and his predecessor, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter.
In his address, Cardinal Marx thanked the Pope for his fidelity to the faith, saying he was an important example to all bishops of loyalty and obedience.
The Pope, who smiled and clapped during the 40-minute event, thanked everyone present and noted how the different cities, people and ages represented there were “a reflection of all the stages in my life”.
He said the music and instruments reminded him of his childhood. His father used to play the stringed zither, he said, and, as children, he and his siblings would sing “God Greets You”, which was sung at the Vatican event.
“This is the sound of my youth, present and future,” the Pope told his guests.
At the end of the celebration, everyone, including the Pope, sang the Bavarian state anthem...
[Glatz goes on to report about the Mass as described earlier in the AP report.]
Pope marks birthday
with private Mass
April 16, 2012
Pope Benedict XVI marked his 85th birthday today, with a series of events both sacred and civil.
Born 85 years ago Monday in the tiny Bavarian town of Marktl by the river Inn, near the border with Austria, on what was in that year – 1927 – Holy Saturday, and baptized that same day: Joseph Alois Ratzinger would go on to an illustrious career as a university professor, pastor, and Prince of the Church before being elected to succeed Blessed John Paul II – choosing for himself the name Benedict XVI.
Both anniversaries occur this week, and well wishes have been coming in from all around the world – some of which he received in person and privately on Monday morning in the Vatican, before an official noonday birthday greeting offered by a delegation from his native Bavaria.
Earlier Monday morning, in the Pauline chapel of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Benedict celebrated Mass with guests from Bavaria and several German bishops.
In his homily, the Holy Father noted that for him, this anniversary day of his birth and his baptism is always immersed in the Paschal Mystery, the mystery of the Cross and resurrection.
“In a special way,” he said, “on Holy Saturday, the day of God's silence, the apparent absence of God and yet the day that the resurrection is announced.”
The Pope went on to say that he knows now – though he cannot say what the future has in store for him - that because God is the light and Christ is risen, that His light is stronger than all darkness, and that God's good is stronger than all the evil in this world.
Here at Vatican Radio we'd like to wish the Holy Father a very 'Happy Birthday'!
To celebrate this special day, the 16th of April 2012, we bring him the greetings of the Archbishop of Liverpool, Patrick Kelly:
We're celebrating his birthday massively grateful to God for giving us somebody whom I believe embodies the words of Cardinal Newman 'loving wisdom ' and 'wisest love'.
And that is healing - it's encouraging and it is a source of joy which shines through. It is an Easter message which doesn't say there is no such thing as sin and evil but accepts as in the words of the new translation : 'we are overcome with Paschal joy'.
We pray that will be the joy of the Holy Father on his birthday.
From Cardinal Francis Arinze, emeritus Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship:
We wish the Holy Father a happy birthday. Our wishes for him are of joy, peace, and his seeing the faith in Christ make great progress, that faith for which the Pope sacrifices himself totally.
The whole Church is united with the Holy Father on this day. We wish him joy, we wish him good health, and we wish him also that peace that will come from knowing he is doing God’s will, and that the bishops, priests, and the whole Church are united with him.
Other birthday messages
The President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, has sent Pope Benedict XVI the following message:
Your Holiness, on the happy occasion of your birthday, and as we approach the seventh anniversary of your election to the Papacy, I would like to offer, on behalf of the Italian people and myself, the warmest and most sincere good wishes for you and for the fruitful continuation of the high moral and spiritual teachings for which the Italian nation and the wider Catholic community look to you with hope.
With continuing feelings of friendship and esteem.
GIORGIO NAPOLITANO
Rome, April 16, 2012
Nothing could be more heartwarming and touching than the messages sent by the faithful who have used Avvenire's special link to send their birthday wishes to the Holy Father. The least I checked there were 384 posted online...
www.avvenire.it/Chiesa/Pagine/compleanno-papa.aspx
I am sorry I have been unable to access the Avvenire special that came out yesterday, because they now have a paywall, but their method of payment is not the usual credit card or Paypal accommodation, but something called Onebip that tells me 'it does not support your cell phone number' - apparently it only works if you live in Italy.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 16/04/2012 19:58]