Church in the World

Bavarian birthplace celebrates

Europe

SPONTANEOUS celebrations erupted in Pope Benedict XVI?s home country of Germany as his election was announced on Tuesday evening.

In Munich, the country?s third largest city and Bavaria?s state capital, a Mass was celebrated in the Frauenkirche cathedral on Tuesday night to celebrate the election of the first German Pope for a millennium. Having celebrated his seventy-eighth birthday last Saturday, he is also the oldest man to be elected pope for three centuries.

In the small town of Marktl am Inn, close to the Austrian border, where Joseph Ratzinger was born, a team of firemen rallied the 2700-strong population to gather in the market square, where a traditional brass band and free beer were on tap for late-night celebrations. Hubert Gschwendter, the town?s mayor, said he was delighted, telling the agency AFP he felt ?unbelievable joy?.

Although the new Pope?s family moved away from the town when he was two and Pope Benedict has said he has no memory of the place, the house where he was born has a plaque in his honour, and the font where he was baptised is displayed in the town museum. The town is set in a deeply Catholic part of Bavaria. It is just a few miles from the shrine of Our Lady of Alt?tting, the German ?Lourdes? and a place of pilgrimage for more than 500 years. In 1489 a drowned child placed before a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary is said to have been brought back to life through her intercession. Since then many more miracles have been claimed for what is today one of the richest places of pilgrimage in Europe. It is also one of the oldest, the central octagonal chapel dating back more than 1300 years, and was visited by the late Pope in 1980.

?This is a great honour for Germany,? said Germany?s Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder. He said Benedict XVI would be ?a worthy successor? to John Paul II, and added that he looked forward to welcoming the new Pope to Cologne for this year?s World Youth Day in August. Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne, said Benedict XVI had confirmed that he would travel to Cologne for the World Youth Day celebrations, which were established by John Paul II in 1984. German President Horst Koehler said ?That a fellow countryman has become Pope fills us with a special joy in Germany ? and also a little pride.?

In Berlin, people were divided over the result of the conclave. While many welcomed Cardinal Ratzinger?s election, Hans Piltz, a worshipping Catholic, told AFP it was ?a black day for the Catholic Church? because he said Ratzinger would do little to bring together Protestants and Catholics

As he left the Vatican, all Cardinal Walter Kasper ? a leading reformist ? would say of his fellow countryman?s election was ?We are happy we have elected a German Pope.?
Michael Hirst