Pentling (dpa / lby) - In the former place of residence of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. the grief after the news of death was great. The mayor of Pentling (Regensburg district), Barbara Wilhelm, said Benedikt "always felt like a Pentlinger and in the community he was always seen as one of us". The former pontiff had lived in the church from 1970 to 1977.
"The contact never broke off," Wilhelm told the German Press Agency. Delegations from the parish of Benedict visited the Vatican time and time again, and there was also lively correspondence. Two years ago, Benedikt had visited his former home for the last time. At that time he had traveled to his dying brother Georg Ratzinger in Regensburg.
In 2015 there was an exhibition about Pope Benedict XVI in the Pentlinger town hall. given. He made some items available on loan for this purpose, Wilhelm said. Among them were family photos, a prayer book and a cross. She herself last saw Benedict in person on his 90th birthday during a visit to the Vatican. It was very moving.
Even when Joseph Ratzinger became archbishop of Munich and Freising in 1977 and prefect of the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1982, he kept his house and pentling and returned there for vacations. In 2010 he gave his house to the Pope Benedict XVI Foundation.
