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PostLet's not forget the fact that the entire Ratzinger family had their name dragged through the mud in the sermon, not just pope Benedict. Do his parents who according to existing accounts were devout Catholics deserve that? Look at the marriage ad through which his father came in contact with his mother and ask yourself whether that sounds like a Satanist.
I don't know why I missed this post before, but the linked story is pretty nice. It has wide appeal, and no date. Apparently the "Daily Mail" likes to display older articles on its website as if they are from the day's current issue. Look at the dates inside the text and see the article refers to Joseph Ratzinger as "the pope" and he is said to be "79." That was about 6 years ago, therefore (meaning the article probably was new about 6 years ago).
His mother had been Maria Peintner before her marriage at age 36, and she bore Joseph at 44, in 1928. She had two other children, Georg (now 89) and a girl, Maria, who died in 1991, but her age or birth year is not mentioned.
It's a cute story, and one of interest to history buffs. The erstwhile Fr. Ratzinger's father died the year after John XXIII was elected and before Vat.II got started. His mother died in the second year of Vat.II, which was the same year JFK was αssαssιnαtҽd, 1963. Ratzinger was a
peritus at the Council, carrying on in the recent wake of the demise of both his parents within 4 years.
From the Daily Mail's linked page:
Pope's shocking secret: His parents met through a newspaper marriage advertPope Benedict XVI has returned to his family home in Germany as a secret to his parent's marriage was revealed after nearly a century - his father advertised for a wife through a Catholic lonely hearts agency.
The Pope admits that he never knew how his policeman father and cook mother met. But in an archive in his home state of Bavaria a newspaper advertisement has been discovered that brought together the couple who would produce the future spiritual leader of millions.
"Middle ranking civil servant, single, Catholic, 43-years-old, immaculate past, from the countryside, is seeking a good Catholic pure girl, who can cook well, and who can do all housework, who is also capable of sewing and a good homemaker in order to marry at the soonest opportunity," it reads.
"Personal fortune would be desirable but is not however a precondition. Offers, if possible with picture, to box number 734."The ad was placed in the 7 March 1920 edition of the
Aotoettinger Liebfrauen Messenger newspaper, a Catholic publication seeking to bring together lonelyhearts of the same religion.
It brought policeman Joseph Ratzinger no results so on July 11 the same year, after he had been promoted a rank, he advertised again and drew a reply from Maria Peintner, born in 1884, and they met at a coffee house in Regensburg - birthplace of the pope - and became engaged days later.
They married on November 9 that year in a parish church near the city and had three children - Georg, now 82 and a Catholic priest in Regensburg, Joseph, 79, the pope, and a daughter named Maria who died in 1991.
The German pope said he was "touched" by the revelations about how his mother and father met. He said it reminded him of the words of the great evangelist theologian Albert Schweitzer who said: "Coincidence is the pseudonym that dear God chooses when he wants to remain incognito."
He received a copy of his father's small ad after it was found by Peter Becker, former editor of the weekly Catholic newspaper. His father died in 1959, his mother in 1963, neither of them having explained how they first came to meet.
Ironically
the paper his father chose to advertise in was the first religious publication that the nαzιs shut down when they came to power in Germany in 1933.The pope, who was recruited into the Hitler Youth movement towards the end of the Second World War, said he cherished the finding of the advertisement.
But although the Ratzingers had a long, and by all accounts happy, marriage [Miss] Peintner* was unable to fulfill the bit about bringing money to the union: she was broke.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-404487/Popes-shocking-secret-His-parents-met-newspaper-marriage-advert.html#ixzz2w3QC5seCFollow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
[I inserted "Miss" in place of the Mail's "Ms."]