Pope Benedict XVI's elder brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, who until 1994 was director of the famous cathedral choir of Regensburg, Germany, has completed a book entitled "Mein Bruder, der Papst" (My Brother the Pope), written in collaboration with the German journalist Michael Hesemann.
The 256-page volume, illustrated with forty photographs, contains the memories of the Holy Father's brother, as recounted to Hesemann in Regensburg earlier this year. It has been published by the German publishing house Herbig and will go on sale in bookshops on September 12, the eve of Benedict XVI's forthcoming visit to Germany.
According to a Vatican statement, the culminating moment of the narrative is the sixtieth anniversary of the priestly ordination of Georg and the former Joseph Ratzinger. The two brothers were ordained in Freising on June 29, 1951 and this year celebrated their anniversary together in St. Peter's Basilica.
The memories of Msgr. Ratzinger, the Holy Father's closest relative, go back to the brothers' childhood as he narrates, among other things, the flowering of Joseph's priestly vocation in the bosom of a pious family and his subsequent years of service to the Church before being elected to the Papacy.
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