Day 6 of Pope Benedict XVI's Reign - Cracks Jokes With Countrymen, Visits St. Paul's

Yahoo! News ^ | 4/25/2005 | n/a

[Pyro7480]

Pope Benedict XVI holds a statue of the Virgin Mary with Child given to him as a gift during an audience with German pilgrims in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Monday, April 25, 2005. Pope Benedict XVI, who is the first German pope in centuries, received a hero's welcome from his fellow countrymen who came to Rome to attend his installment Mass on Sunday.(AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Pope Benedict XVI waves during an audience with German pilgrims in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Monday, April 25, 2005. Pope Benedict XVI, who is the first German pope in centuries, received a hero's welcome from his fellow countrymen who came to Rome to attend his installment Mass on Sunday. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Pope Benedict XVI arrives for the first audience with German pilgrims at the Vatican in Rome April 25, 2005. Pilgrims from all over the world made their way to the inauguration of the former German Cardinal Josef Ratzinger yesterday. REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz

Pope Benedict XVI arrives for an audience with German pilgrims at the Vatican April 25, 2005. Pilgrims from all over the world made their way to the inauguration of the former German Cardinal Josef Ratzinger yesterday. REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz

Pope Benedict XVI, flanked by German Cardinals Joachim Meisner, left, and Friedrich Wetter, blesses German pilgrims during an audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Monday, April 25, 2005. Pope Benedict XVI, who is the first German pope in centuries, received a hero's welcome from his fellow countrymen who came to Rome to attend his installment Mass on Sunday.(AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

German pilgrims attend an audience with Pope Benedict XVI in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Monday, April 25, 2005. Pope Benedict XVI, who is the first German pope in centuries, received a hero's welcome from his fellow countrymen who came to Rome to attend his installment Mass on Sunday. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Pope Benedict XVI shakes hands with German Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, Archbishop of Munich, during an audience with German pilgrims in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Monday, April 25, 2005. Pope Benedict XVI, who is the first German pope in centuries, received a hero's welcome from his fellow countrymen who came to Rome to attend his installment Mass on Sunday.(AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Georg Ratzinger, second from left, brother of Pope Benedict XVI, shares a word with bishops and a cardinal following the pontiff's audience with German pilgrims in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Monday, April 25, 2005. Pope Benedict XVI, who is the first German pope in centuries, received a hero's welcome from his fellow countrymen who came to Rome to attend his installment Mass on Sunday.(AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI, sits by himself prior to the pontiff's audience with German pilgrims in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Monday, April 25, 2005. Pope Benedict XVI, who is the first German pope in centuries, received a hero's welcome from his fellow countrymen who came to Rome to attend his installment Mass on Sunday.(AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

In this photo made available by the Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI holds a meeting with world religious leaders in the Sala Clementina at the Vatican, Monday, April 25, 2005. Benedict told ecumenical leaders on Monday that he fully supported the need to work toward uniting Christians divided by schism. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano,ho)

In this photo made available by the Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano, world religious leaders applaud Pope Benedict XVI, in white, during a meeting in the Sala Clementina at the Vatican, Monday, April 25, 2005. Benedict told ecumenical leaders on Monday that he fully supported the need to work toward uniting Christians divided by schism. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano)

In this photo made available by the Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI greets the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams during a meeting in the Sala Clementina at the Vatican, Monday, April 25, 2005. Benedict told ecumenical leaders on Monday that he fully supported the need to work toward uniting Christians divided by schism. At left, German Cardinal Walter Kasper. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano, HO)

In this photo made available by the Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI, center, greets Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Kirill, left, a senior representative of the Russian Orthodox Church, during a meeting in the Sala Clementina at the Vatican, Monday, April 25, 2005. Benedict told ecumenical leaders on Monday that he fully supported the need to work toward uniting Christians divided by schism. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano)

Pope Benedict XVI arrives for a celebration service in St. Paul basilica in Rome April 25, 2005. The new Pope praised dialogue with Muslims for the first time and issued another call for Christian unity, renewing a theme he has made a hallmark of the early days of his papacy. (Tobias Schwarz/Reuters)

Pope Benedict XVI waves to the crowd a celebration service in the Basilica of Saint Paul in Rome, April 25, 2005. The new Pope Benedict praised dialogue with Muslims for the first time on Monday and issued another call for Christian unity, renewing a theme he has made a hallmark of the early days of his papacy. REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz

[Pyro7480]

Viva il Papa!

[el_chupacabra]

Great shots. Thank you for this Pyro!

[starfish923]

Great pics.

[Pyro7480]

Pope Benedict XVI holds a statue of the Virgin Mary with Child given to him as a gift during an audience with German pilgrims in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Monday, April 25, 2005. Pope Benedict XVI, who is the first German pope in centuries, received a hero's welcome from his fellow countrymen who came to Rome to attend his installment Mass on Sunday.(AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Specifically, that statue is of Our Lady of Altötting. Altötting is a Bavarian town where there is a shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pope Benedict XVI was born only a short distance from there. Coincidentally, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception dedicated an oratory of Our Lady of Altötting on 16 April 2005, (then) Cardinal Ratzinger's 78th Birthday.

[tiredoflaundry]

Thanks!

[onyx]

His brother looks lonely sitting by himself, but humble too: note that he didn't take a front row seat.

Beautiful pics again, pyro.
Thanks so much for these daily threads!

[wideawake]

I love that picture of the Pope's brother. It reminds me of how I feel about my battle-decorated younger brother - so happy to be part of his family.

[Miss Marple]

Thanks, Pyro!

[ELS]

Thamk you. Were there any pictures from the Mass at the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls?

[TNCMAXQ]

Nice pictures. Seems like the Holy Father has a nice dry sense of humor too. So much for this caricature of him as a serious, no nonsense type guy.

[onyx]

Mon Apr 25, 1:49 PM ET Pope Benedict XVI blesses pilgrims during his visit to the Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls in Rome, Monday, April 25, 2005. In his first official visit outside the Vatican City, the pontiff prayed in the packed Rome Basilica and visited place where the Apostle Paul, co-founder of the Church with Peter, is believed to have been buried. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Mon Apr 25, 1:55 PM ET Pope Benedict XVI blesses faithful during his visit to the Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls in Rome, Monday, April 25, 2005. In his first official visit outside Vatican City, the pontiff prayed in the packed Rome Basilica and visited the place where the Apostle Paul, co-founder of the Church with Peter, is believed to have been buried.(AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

[Pyro7480]

I don't know if there was a Mass, but he visited there.

[AnAmericanMother]

I thought she looked familiar!

I lived just down the road in Bad Aibling one summer.

[ELS]

I don't know if there was a Mass

That was a mistaken assumption on my part. I went over to Yahoo! News and read an article that said he read a passage from Romans and prayed near where Paul is believed to be buried.

[Thorin]

Thanks for the great pictures. Once people get a chance to see for themselves what type of man Benedict is, it will be hard for the smear artists to keep their campaign going.

[shhrubbery!]

Thanks again for the daily thread, Pyro.

I like this man. A LOT. I think he will be a great pope.

So don't get me wrong. I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade here, but I think we should prepare ourselves for a possible bit of disappointment with the new pope's views regarding the church and socialism.

Now I believe that as Cardinal Ratzinger, he clamped down on 'Liberation Theology' in Latin America (or was it only John Paul II who did that?).

But according to a couple of non-liberal panelists on Meet the Press yesterday, he holds fairly socialistic views.

The editor of First Things, Joseph Bottum, said the new pope favors the "third way" (hypothetical middle road between capitalism and Marxism) --which supposedly the Germans have tried to practice for the last half century. (Never mind that Germany has terrible unemployment and economic stagnation now!)

Bottum said that if John Paul II had said "Three cheers for democracy, and two cheers for capitalism," then Benedict XVI is now going to be saying only "one cheer for capitalism."

[Pyro7480]

What evidence he gave that he supported "the third way?"

[rockabyebaby]

Thanks for the pind a ding ding! I LOVE our new Pope! Benedict RULES!

[GipperGal]

Did you see all the Bavarian flags at the Inagural Mass? I don't think I've ever seen so much lederhousen outside an Octoberfest!

[Pyro7480]

Pope Benedict XVI is greeted by a crowd during a visit to Rome's St Paul's Basilica April 25, 2005. A shy Bavarian thrust into the limelight by his election last Tuesday, he smiled amid the flashing camera lights and touched grasping hands, then drew laughter and applause when he apologised for arriving late from an inter-religious meeting. 'Germans are known for being punctual -- it seems I've become a bit of an Italian,' he joked. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano

Pope Benedict XVI blesses pilgrims during his visit to the Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls in Rome, Monday, April 25, 2005. In his first official visit outside the Vatican City, the pontiff prayed in the packed Rome Basilica and visited place where the Apostle Paul, co-founder of the Church with Peter, is believed to have been buried. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Benedict XVI leads a prayer in the Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls in Rome, Monday, April 25, 2005. In his first official visit outside the Vatican City, the pontiff prayed in the packed Rome Basilica and visited the place where the Apostle Paul, co-founder of the Church with Peter, is believed to have been buried. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Benedict XVI attends a celebration service in the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome April 25, 2005. The new Pope Benedict praised dialogue with Muslims for the first time on Monday and issued another call for Christian unity, renewing a theme he has made a hallmark of the early days of his papacy. REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico

Pope Benedict XVI wipes his face during a celebration service in the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome April 25, 2005. The new Pope Benedict praised dialogue with Muslims for the first time on Monday and issued another call for Christian unity, renewing a theme he has made a hallmark of the early days of his papacy. REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico

Pope Benedict XVI prays during a celebration service in the Basilica of Saint Paul in Rome April 25, 2005. The new Pope Benedict praised dialogue with Muslims for the first time on Monday and issued another call for Christian unity, renewing a theme he has made a hallmark of the early days of his papacy. REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico

Pope Benedict XVI is greeted by a crowd during a visit to Rome's St Paul's Basilica April 25, 2005. A shy Bavarian thrust into the limelight by his election last Tuesday, he smiled amid the flashing camera lights and touched grasping hands, then drew laughter and applause when he apologised for arriving late from an inter-religious meeting. 'Germans are known for being punctual -- it seems I've become a bit of an Italian,' he joked. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano