The heart of Joseph Ratzinger’s Bavaria
In the second of three extracts from her new book Alessandra Borghese visits a shrine which shaped the piety of Joseph Ratzinger
16 May 2008

Benedict XVI waves to the crowd in front of the chapel in Altötting, southern Germany, on September 11, 2006

Having left Munich and Freising, and now on our way towards the scenes of Ratzinger's childhood and youth, we decided to stop off in a place that we knew to be close to the heart of the Pope and also of all Bavarians.

The shrine of Altötting is the most important Marian sanctuary in Bavaria - the equivalent, say, of Czestochowa for the Poles and Pope John Paul II.

For over 1,250 years this small town half way between Munich and Salzburg, 400 metres above sea level in the famous foothills of the Bavarian Alps, and surrounded by the magical woods of Holzland, has been the spiritual capital of Bavaria.

The story of the Chapel of Mercy and the black octagon at its heart in which the statue of the Madonna is kept can be summed up in four words: "Mary has helped us." However, the fame of Altötting was established long ago.

It all began when the Madonna cured two children in two separate miracles. After that, the pilgrimages started and people began to come here with their troubles, praying for the miraculous intervention of the Virgin Mary. Many left tangible evidence of their gratitude; indeed, the portico outside the shrine is covered with small framed illustrations of the cures granted to the faithful. The oldest of these ex voto offerings dates back to 1501. However, the statue, 64 centimetres high and made of dark lime wood, was already inside the existing octagon around the year 1300, and in later centuries was framed by a sumptuous gold and silver altarpiece.

The Bavarians have always felt a strong bond with the Virgin Mary, so much so that the Wittelsbach family, which ruled from 1180, dedicated themselves and their country to the Madonna of Altötting, even leaving instructions that when they died their hearts should be placed in urns which were to be left permanently near the statue of their holy patroness.

Even though this beautiful town attracts about a million pilgrims every year, it is still a stranger to mass tourism and still unknown to the Italian tourists. When Gloria [von Thurn und Taxis] and I went there, the owners of the small and immaculately kept religious souvenir shops near the main square were getting ready for the crowds which would inevitably be attracted by the arrival of a Bavarian Pope known to be deeply attached to this shrine. Many were also learning Italian, since Italy is the country which produces the highest number of pilgrims. I confess that I am proud of this.

In Altötting we were the guests of Herr Krauss and his wife, friends of Gloria's mother. He is a maths teacher, tall and well-built, but wears a permanently thoughtful expression. She is an interior designer, short and energetic, and always attentive and inquiring.

The Krausses unfailingly wear traditional Tyrolean clothes and, as devout Catholics, they like to recite the rosary with their guests.

Just a few months before our arrival they had moved into a lovely first-floor flat above Anton Braun Muller's well-known shop selling religious articles right on the famous Kapellplatz. On the corner of the house there is a large statue of St Joseph and the Child. You often see these statues in Bavaria.

From the seven windows of this light-filled flat you can keep an eye on everything that is going on around the Chapel of Mercy. An old prie-dieu is placed in a prominent position in the main sitting room for the benefit of anyone wishing to pray while looking directly on to the holy octagonal chapel.

The Krausses are warm and generous hosts, and on their kitchen table there is always something to eat. The one daily appointment we were expected to keep was for Brotzeit, the first meal of the day and one that is something of a rite, in which the whole family gathers round the table to talk and spends time together; and the various types of bread and large choice of hams, cheeses and sausages were a temptation that I could not resist.

We went outside to stretch our legs. The main square was full of people, with customers sipping beer in the bars while numerous pilgrims with wooden crosses on their shoulders were heading towards the Chapel of Mercy, where the crosses would be left in the portico.



We reached the Hotel Post, where the owner Gerhard Tandler, a former Minister of the Interior, is a friend of Gloria's. He was most happy to see us and immediately sat down to talk.

Inevitably, the conversation turned to Joseph Ratzinger, and Tandler told us about the time he came here anonymously with his brother Georg: "After Mass, they came to the Hotel Post and ate freshly-made Brezen and Weisswürste with Weisswurstsenf (sweet mustard)."

Not far from the hotel is the Panorama, one of the town's main attractions. Having bought your ticket, you go along along dark corridor and up the 23 steps of a creaking staircase before emerging into a large round room with a floorspace of about 1,000 square metres. The walls, covered in frescos executed by Gebhard Fugel in 1903, depict the day of the crucifixion of Christ in Jerusalem. In order to recreate the right atmosphere, Fugel apparently went to Palestine to see the sites and get a feel for them.

Georg Ratzinger once said that although he had studied Fugel at school, it was "only as adults" that he and his brother first visited the Panorama. Even in this age of special effects, I was impressed by the way that we were immediately transported back 2,000 years, though witnessing real events.

What, though, is the Pope's relationship with the holy town of Altötting? From childhood onwards, the young Joseph used to come here with his parents; and in the years to come, numerous public and private occasions brought him back here to kneel at the feet of the Madonna in the Chapel of Mercy. The last time was in January 2005, when he and his brother Georg came on a private pilgrimage, only a few months before he then became Pope Benedict XVI.

It was on that occasion that he put his name to the preface to a new guidebook which is now a collector's item: "I had the good fortune to be born near Altötting," he wrote, "and pilgrimages here with my family are among the happiest of my childhood. Naturally, for me the highlight of these journeys was always the Chapel of Mercy with its mysterious darkness and the Most Holy Black Madonna in her precious robes..." I have chosen the following episode from the many reminiscences of the then cardinal: "I have a very clear memory of one of my visits to Altötting. It was a cold day and I was crossing the large square, heading towards the famous chapel. The restricted space inside was overcrowded. Candles were burning everywhere in the semi-darkness. The chapel was filled almost exclusively with women praying and singing Marian hymns. I sensed that this was a way not just to overcome my weaknesses, but also to find renewed strength."

I, too, now wished to visit this holy place. And from my viewpoint I was able to admire the Mystery. As my eyes searched out every small gesture on the part of the worshippers, my heart beat hard.

In order to venerate the Madonna, you have to go through a small door above which is a lunette showing the Virgin dressed in red, her arms spread out to hold up a large blue mantle that protects the people of God who are kneeling at her feet.

As soon as he was elected Pope, Ratzinger stated that Altötting was the heart of Bavaria and one of the hearts of Europe. It is indeed true that together with Lourdes, Fatima, Czestochowa and Loreto, this tiny but splendid and ancient shrine is one of the five most important in Europe; so much so that in November 1980 it was visited by Pope John Paul II, who was accompanied, among other people, by Joseph Ratzinger, the then Archbishop of Munich and Freising. This event is recorded in a bronze statue by Leo Mol which is placed in a prominent position in the square.

Ratzinger has paid a number of visits to Altötting. In the jubilee year of 1989 he celebrated the official Mass for the opening of the Basilica of St Anne, which was needed to accommodate the increasing numbers of pilgrims. Ten years afterwards, in 1999, he returned to the same place to give an address to mark the 400th anniversary of the Marian Congregation of Men, which is attached to this shrine which is so close to the Pope's heart.

Then in 2001 he joined thousands of pilgrims on the last leg of their journey as they walked from Regensburg to Altötting.

However, perhaps one of the most important memories of Ratzinger's life is the canonisation, which took place during his childhood, of Brother Conrad Parzham, the Capuchin porter of the shrine of Altötting. The Pope's devotion to the Madonna is well known. Do not let us forget that immediately after his election, the first words spoken by Benedict XVI from the loggia at the front of St Peter's, were: "Rejoicing in the Lord who has arisen, and trusting in His lasting help, let us proceed. The Lord will help us and His Most go through Holy Mother Mary is with us."

Like his beloved predecessor John Paul II, Joseph Ratzinger has strong Marian loyalties. As he has said: "Mary is the expression of our closeness to God ... it is moving to think that the Son of God should have a human mother to whom all of us are entrusted." And as the Pope himself has said, his relationship with the Holy Virgin has become more important over the years: "The older I get, the more dear and important the Mother of God becomes to me."

Years before this, Ratzinger had written the following words in a book entitled Rapporto sulla fede, published in English as The Ratzinger Report: "When I was a young theologian before the Second Vatican Council, I had a number of reservations about certain ancient formulas such as the famous one stating that one can never say enough about the Virgin Mary. I thought this excessive... But now, in this confused period in which every sort of heretical deviation seems to be pressing against the doors of the true faith, I appreciate that these were not devout exaggerations, but rather a series of truths that are more valid today than ever before... Indeed, if we wish to return to the truth concerning Jesus Christ, the Church, and man, then we must return to the Virgin Mary... More than ever, the Madonna must be the pedagogia for teaching the Gospel to man today."

This is an extract from In the Footsteps of Joseph Ratzinger by Alessandra Borghese, translated by Sebastian Cresswell-Turner and published by Family Publications, priced £7.95