Pope Benedict XVI's brother writes book "My Brother, the Pope"
Benedict XVI's elder brother Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, who until 1994 was director of
the famous cathedral choir of Regensburg, has completed a book entitled "Mein Bruder,
der Papst" (My Brother the Pope), written in collaboration with the German journalist
Michael Hesemann. The 256-page volume, illustrated with forty photographs, contains
the memories of the Holy Father's brother, as recounted to Hesemann in Regensburg
earlier this year. It has been published by the German publishing house Herbig and
will go on sale in bookshops on 12 September, the eve of Benedict XVI's visit to Germany. The
culminating moment of the narrative is the sixtieth anniversary of the priestly ordination
of Georg and Joseph Ratzinger. The two brothers were ordained in Freising on 29 June
1951 and this year celebrated their anniversary together in St. Peter's Basilica.
The memories of Msgr. Ratzinger, the Holy Father's closest relative, go back to the
brothers' childhood as he narrates, among other things, the flowering of Joseph's
priestly vocation in the bosom of the family and his subsequent years of service to
the Church before being elected to the Papacy. (VIS)