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Pope Benedict XVI in USA — Well Wishes from Ambassador Scharioth
German Ambassador Klaus Scharioth on Monday sent well wishes to Pope Benedict XVI on his first visit to the United States. “I wish Pope Benedict XVI a happy and productive journey in America. People are looking forward to his visit, and his reception here will no doubt be as warm and sincere as it has been in Germany, his homeland. I also take this opportunity to congratulate the pontiff on the occasion of his 81st birthday on Wednesday. We at the Embassy would like to wish him all the best for that day.” Pope Benedict XVI will visit the United States, stopping in Washington, DC, and New York, from April 15 to 20. In Washington, he will meet with US President George W. Bush and conduct a public mass at National Stadium. In New York, he will address the United Nations and conduct a public mass at Yankee Stadium. Pope Benedict XVI was born Joseph Ratzinger in the small village of Marktl am Inn in Bavaria and grew up in Traunstein near the Austrian border. Ratzinger was ordained a priest in 1951 in Freising and eventually went on to become a leading professor of theology in Munich. In 1977, he was named Archbishop of Munich and Freising and then elevated to Cardinal that same year. Pope John Paul II appointed him head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1981, and in 2002 Ratzinger was elected Dean of the College of Cardinals. At the Vatican, Ratzinger was a close aide of Pope John Paul II’s. His election as pope on April 19, 2005, was greeted with warm congratulations and well wishes all over the world. Germans, in particular, welcomed with joy and pride the news that a countryman and the first German in centuries had been elevated to the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Later that year, on his first trip abroad as pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated World Youth Day with hundreds of thousands of young Catholics who had traveled to Cologne. In September 2006, Pope Benedict XVI undertook something of a homecoming tour when he visited the stations of his youth and early religious life in Bavaria, stopping in Munich, Regensburg, Freising and tiny Marktl am Inn, where he was born and baptized. April 14, 2008 Links
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