On this Holy Saturday, the Pope Emeritus celebrates his 95th birthday. Radio Horeb in Munich spoke with its private secretary, Bishop Georg Gänswein. Evoking a joyful atmosphere, the latter looks back on the daily life of a personality who “shaped the Church and theology“, reports Vaticannews.
It was also on Holy Saturday, April 16, 1927, that Joseph Ratzinger, future Pope Benedict XVI, was born in the small Bavarian town of Marktl-am-Inn. And this year once more, his birthday falls on the eve of Holy Easter. His life would fill a centuries-old biography, his personality profoundly marked the Church and theology, as underlined by Bishop Georg Gänswein, private secretary to Benedict XVI. “The Pope emeritus, he says, is in a good mood, of course he is physically relatively weak and frail, but quite lucid”.
95 is an important age. However, there will be no feast, says Bishop Gänswein, because Holy Saturday is “the day that expresses the sepulchral rest of Christ”. Rest also for Easter Sunday. “With, of course, a mass”.
During the Octave of Easter, small delegations and a few people will come to present their wishes. Bishop Gänswein recalls the visit of Pope Francis to the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican gardens for greetings last April 13, an early visit -he specifies- since Holy Saturday is “a very busy day for Francis”.
« For some time now, the Pope Emeritus has not celebrated Easter as the main celebrant, simply because he no longer has the strength to stand all the time and he no longer has the strength in his voice.“, adds Bishop Gänswein. Nevertheless, he says, he follows the liturgy, participates in it by concelebrating, with great interior emphasis. He also draws new strength from it, day following day, for his life.
