My Brother, the Pope by Georg Ratzinger

Author:Georg Ratzinger [Ratzinger, Georg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9781586177041
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 2012-01-30T05:00:00+00:00

Joseph Ratzinger (to the far right of the altar) serving Mass

At other times, some of us were accommodated in rooms with ten to fifteen beds, while others had smaller rooms with fewer beds; my brother and I usually slept in different rooms. The rooms were unheated, and in winter it was bitter cold. The wash water that had already been set out in the evening was then covered in the morning with a thin crust of ice that we first had to break.

One roommate of the future pope in Freising was Pavlo Kohut (1926-2006), a Ukrainian Greek Catholic who had fled to Germany from the Russians and now wanted to become a priest. When I interviewed Father Kohut in the summer of 2005, he no longer recalled where he had met Joseph Ratzinger for the first time, in the study hall or at a meal. Yet he still remembered vividly the impression he had of him: “I knew right away: this is a man who is not your peer, he is something quite special. He immediately took an interest in me and listened to me attentively. That meant a great deal to me in my situation at the time. As time went on, we became better acquainted and often went on walks together. I told him about my youth, my uncle, my parents, and about the fact that it was not possible for me to learn anything about them because of the political situation. The Iron Curtain had closed; it was impossible to send letters or receive news reports. He immediately offered to help me in my difficult situation, for which I am still grateful to him today. At that time I had some problems with the German language. He helped me to write letters, complete assignments, and corrected the results. He always looked after me, and you could tell that he did it gladly. He was never imposing, he was always very restrained. He was never full of self-importance, as is sometimes the case with young people, and he did not make himself the center of attention. . . . In everything he did, he showed the utmost concentration—whether he was studying, working, or talking with me, he never let himself be distracted by something else. He learned constantly; he was constantly hungry for new knowledge. Whenever I saw him, he was reading; he used every minute to learn. And he was always very orderly, very well organized. As you see, his diligence paid off.”

I myself did not have much contact with Pavlo Kohut, but my brother was very good friends with him. He was a very sociable, nice man, and everyone knew that he came from the Eastern Church, about which he could tell us a lot. So he was generally well liked, and all of us had good memories of him.

Above all, the candidates for the priesthood who had now returned home were hungry for learning and knowledge. After the dullness of the war years and the

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