The Bishop's Weekly Column from the Parish Bulletin

OUR LADY OF FATIMA

CATHOLIC CHURCH

"The Tale of the Vacationing Cardinal"

August 18th, 2006

We never tire in our search for the truth in this column. Puzzled by the circumstances surrounding the photograph below:

I decided to do a Google image search with the search entry: "Josef Ratzinger". I turned up a lot of interesting things. At this address, at the Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club the following anecdote was related:

Alto Adige is a beautiful, mountainous region bordering Austria, dominated by the Dolomites and, like so much of Italy, it also produces wine. This region, which is part of the Southern Tyrol, once belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1919, after the First World War, it was annexed to Italy. German is still widely spoken in this land of many castles.

On 9th August 2004, while holidaying again in the Alto Adige, Cardinal Ratzinger visited the dramatic Schloss Tyrol, the ancient seat of the Counts of Tyrol, which is now a museum. Built in the second half of the 12th century, the castle occupies a spectacular position on a rock outcrop above the valley.

The Cardinal, who has family connections with the nearby Val Pusteria, (his mother was from the region and some tours now take in the house where she was born) was accompanied by his brother. It was no ordinary visit as the director of the museum, Dr. Siegfried de Rachewiltz, and the Mayor, Ignaz Ladurner, both turned out to escort the Cardinal and Georg Ratzinger on their tour.

Josef is the man in the white collar
Georg is shaking hands

The local parish priest and the chaplain of the castle were also in attendance. The Cardinal showed great enthusiasm for the Castle and its history, asked many questions and listened intently to his guides He showed particular interest in the chapel which dates from around 1270.

Also during their tour (dated August 2004 - the year prior to the election by the way) Josef and Georg visited the local medical establishment:

Just what exactly is the more famous Ratzinger wearing ? Yet another pose from their vacation:

Vacation time 2005 and Georg was hospitalized in the Gemmelli clinic in Rome having a pace-maker fitted visited by his brother in an entirely different attire that neither of them expected in August 04.

There always is a perfectly natural explanation....

+TF