"Birthday in heaven": Freising companions pay tribute to the late Pope Benedict
Created: 12/31/2022 11:19 am
By: Manuel Eser
The time to say goodbye has come: Pope Benedict died at the age of 95.
His life had always brought him back to Freising, like here when he drove through Freising in the popemobile.
© FT Archive
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
is dead. He died at 9:34 am on Saturday at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery.
Freising companions pay tribute to the deceased.
Freising
– In the last hours of the Pope Emeritus' life, Dean Stephan Rauscher's thoughts were with him the whole time.
"Of course I prayed a lot for Benedict," he reports to the FT.
His death is a sad moment, but also a solemn one.
"Because for us Christians, the day of death is also the birthday in heaven."
Rauscher praised Benedikt, who died at the age of 95, as "a very modest, very alert and very accommodating person".
The Freising dean particularly fondly remembers a moment at the end of 2016 with the Pope, who was already retired at the time.
"I and some hop farmers from the Hallertau met him in Rome," he reports.
Benedict asked the farmers how the harvest went and they assured him that they were satisfied.
"I then joked that the hop farmers always like to whine to me, but then don't dare to do it to the Holy Father."
Dean Stephan Rauscher experienced a special moment in Rome with the emeritus pope.
© FT Archive
Humorous moment with hop farmers
Benedikt's answer was very humorous.
“He said: I know that hop farmers have always had it good.
When I was still driving around in a Beetle, they were already driving Mercedes.” Benedikt then laughed, according to Rauscher.
"I liked that."
Freising's former mayor, Dieter Thalhammer, also perceived the pope as an accessible person.
"He never took off, took people seriously and spoke to everyone as equals." He himself had experienced some "very touching moments" with Benedict.
During his time as Lord Mayor, Benedict visited his old place of work in Freising in 2006 as the newly elected Pope.
"That was one of the most formative moments for me," reports Thalhammer.
Former Lord Mayor Dieter Thalhammer gave Pope Benedict honorary citizenship of the city of Freising.
© FT Archive
But the old mayor puts the date in Rome even higher when he awarded Benedict honorary citizenship of the city of Freising.
"This experience couldn't be topped." What particularly impressed Thalhammer: "The fact that the Holy Father really took a lot of time for us."
(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)
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Homesickness accompanied Pope on his way
Joseph Ratzinger was also an old companion for Auxiliary Bishop Bernhard Haßlberger.
"In 1977 I was the first person he ordained as a new archbishop," he recalls.
He and the Holy Father would also have the same roots.
"We're both from the Chiemgau, that's a bond," says Haßlberger and laughs.
"Whenever I met him somewhere, he said: Aha, the Chiemgauer is back too."
Auxiliary Bishop Bernhard Haßlberger was ordained a priest by Joseph Ratzinger.
© FT Archive
Even in intimate circles, the common home was always an issue.
"I think he's always been a bit homesick."
For Haßlberger, Benedikt was not only a "very modest person" but also "very clever".
All his life he was the professor who wrote excellent books and conducted disputes on an equal footing with famous philosophers such as Jürgen Habermas.
"Actually, he preferred to be in the background, but fate pushed him to the fore as pope."
Benedikt's death is sad, but Haßlberger also emphasizes: "At the age of 95 you can let someone go."
You can find more current news from the district of Freising at Merkur.de/Freising.