Ratzinger Family
Posted on 09/12/2006 10:43:23 AM PDT by NYer
London, Sep. 11, 2006 (CNA) - Pope Benedict XVI and his brother, Fr. Georg Ratzinger, 82, were surprised to learn this week that their parents, Joseph and Maria, met through a singles ad their father had placed in local Catholic weekly, Liebfraubote.
The disclosure came at the outset of the Pope’s return to his native Bavaria, where he intends to visit his parents’ grave and the village of Marktl am Inn, where he was born, reported the London Times.
The July 1920 ad was found in the Bavarian state archives by a researcher for the tabloid Bild. According to the report, the ad read: “Middle-ranking civil servant, single, Catholic, 43, immaculate past, from the country, is looking for a good Catholic, pure girl who can cook well, tackle all household chores, with a talent for sewing and homemaking with a view to marriage as soon as possible. Fortune desirable but not a precondition.”
Maria Peintner, 36, an illegitimate baker’s daughter and a trained cook, replied. She did not have a fortune, but they married four months later.
The Pope said he remembers his father as “strict but fair” and his mother as warm and open-hearted,” reported the Times.
Sweet....two priests in the family....now one a POPE!!
My wife and I met online through yahoo personals. We have to daughters so far.
I think that's a nice story. I'm sorry they didn't tell it to the kids when they were growing up.
ROFLOL ... These were the exact same words I used when I was soliciting potential wives at the bar where I met my wife. While I'm very happily married, I've suggested to my sons that they ought to consider a fortune a precondition.
I could use that ad myself, with just a few changed. :0
I love it! I did the ad thing when I was single, too. That's not how I met my beloved Don-o, but that's another story you can file under Dumb Luck and Divine Providence...
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Not the way I met Mr. Trisham, either. I was very lucky, I know, and it's going to be our 23rd anniversary in November. How long for you and Mr. Don-o?
Those Germans are amazing... who knew they even had the internet in the 1930s?
(I didn't realize Al Gore was that old!)
Old-ish parents for those days.
I wonder if, by "fortune," he meant a cash dowry. That's how the word is used in "The Quiet Man."
Mr. Don-o and I met in the summer of 1988 and married on Dec. 31 of that same year. So it will be 18 years at New Years. We were kind of old, late 30's, but God apparently had plans for us.
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Heavens. Late 30's sounds youthful to me now. :)
Congratulations to you both!
I meant old (for the XX side of the equation) to be starting a family. Now we have two teenage sons. Pride and joy! God has provided.
That's wonderful. You have been blessed.
Der Prinz auf Nerdz and I met through mutual friends, and got married about six weeks after you and Mr. Don-o. (Feb. 4, 1989).
Oh! That's right when we begot our firstborn. Boy, did we have beginners' luck!
LOL! We'd been married almost two years before Anoreth was born, but we were in our early 20's.
The German term is probably Mitgift. The traditional English term for dowry was "fortune" - as in the old Mother Goose rhyme:
Where are you going to, my pretty maid?I'm going a-milking, sir, she said.
Shall I go with you, my pretty maid?
Yes, if you please, kind sir, she said.
What is your father, my pretty maid?
My father's a farmer, sir, she said.
What is your fortune, my pretty maid?
My face is my fortune, sir, she said.
Then I can't marry you, my pretty maid.
Nobody asked you, sir, she said.
And the publisher was Dr. Neal Clark Warren's grandfather.
Mom: "This is my baby, little Joey. He's going to be Pope someday."
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