GERMANY: Pope Benedict pays brief visit to small town where he was born and baptised

Pope Benedict paid a brief visit on Monday (September 11) to the village in southern Germany, where he was born on April 16, 1927. In the early evening, the Pontiff flew in by helicopter to Marktl am Inn, where he lived for the first two years of his life. Benedict smiled broadly as he shook hands with the crowds waiting for him. But he hardly glanced at his birth house as he drove by in his "popemobile". The town has erected "the Benedict column" in the main square, in his honour. "This emotion, this feeling, this spontaneity was with him today and all of us are absolutely thrilled," Marktl mayor Hubert Gschwendner said. Marktl am Inn Resident Margit Neunruhrer said it was a unique day. "It touches the hearts, it is just absolutely amazing." Accompanied by his older brother Georg Ratzinger, who is a priest, the Pope stood in a long quiet prayer around the font in the local church where he was baptised. He then flew by helicopter to Regensburg for a triumphant bell-ringing return to the city where he owns a house and once taught theology. The Pope had spent most of the third day of his Bavarian tour in Altoetting, a town of some 13,000 people known as the religious heart of Bavaria because it is home to the country's leading shrine to the Virgin Mary. There, Pope Benedict prayed for the victims of the September 11 attacks on the United States during a mass for 70,000 people.

ITN Source | September 12, 2006

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