cOMMentARY
tHe ligHt of Holy saturday NiNety-five years ago, PoPe Benedict XVi was borN oN a Holy saturday iN aPril — wHicH turNed out to be a sigN of diviNe ProvideNce. eigHty-tHree years later, He was coNfroNted witH tHe most mysterious icoN aNd relic of tHe NigHt of cHrist’s resurrectioN, tHe turiN sHroud. Part 1 of a 2-Part series n BY MICHAEL HESEMANN
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Benedict XVI venerates the Shroud of Turin on May 2, 2010. (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano) In the small photo, a close-up of the image as a negative, from the face of the Shroud
t was a Holy Saturday on April 16, 95 years ago (1927), when Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, was born in Marktl am Inn, in Bavaria, Germany. The words with which his brother Georg Ratzinger (who passed away on July 1, 2020) described this day to me 11 years ago still ring in my ears. It was an ice-cold day with lots of snow, terrible weather. At some point little Georg, who was just three years old, woke up and realized that he was alone. He wasn’t used to sleeping alone; he usually laid in bed with his parents and his sister Maria. But when he awoke in the early hours of that gray, cold April day, no one was there. Instead, he heard the sounds of hectic activity. Doors slammed shut, quick footsteps echoed in the hallway, people talked loudly. When he heard his father’s voice, he called after him: “Father, I want to get up!” Then Joseph Ratzinger senior, the taciturn, strict but kindhearted gendarme said: “No, you have to wait. Today we got a little boy.” And since the Pope’s brother had kept his wonderful sense of humor well into old age, he added, I may quote: “It was all a bit of a mystery to me back then.” This little boy was born at 4:15 am and baptized at 8:30 am. They didn’t even wait until Anna Ratzinger, who was to be godmother, could be notified, but asked 34
INSIDE THE VATICAN MAY-JUNE 2022
a nun named Adelma Rohrhirsch to step in for her, since at that time the liturgy of the Easter Vigil was celebrated in the morning of Holy Saturday. Because the consecration of baptismal water and the baptismal rite are an integral part of this liturgy, the parents didn’t hesitate for long: “Now the boy is born, now he’s going to be baptized!” Not only Georg and Maria, but also their beloved mother, stayed at home, since it snowed so hard that their parents feared that the two siblings would catch a cold. The young mother, on the other hand, was still too badly affected from the birth to be allowed out into the snow. So the baby was the first to be baptized with the freshly consecrated water and given the name Joseph Aloisius. “At the door at Easter, but not yet entered” became the metaphor for his whole life, which from the very beginning had been immersed in the Easter mystery. For some it may be a coincidence, but for us Christians it is a sign of Divine Providence that he also celebrated his 95th birthday on a Holy Saturday this year. After the last few weeks and months, which became a real Via Crucis for him, when, under a cheap pretext intended to distract from the failures of others, he was spat at and insulted and sent to the media’s via dolorosa with calls of “Crucifige eum!” he must have experienced this Good Friday even more intensely than in all
