Regensburg (dpa / lby) – Regensburg’s Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer has the life’s work of the late Pope emeritus Benedict XVI. honored and in particular his connection to the city was underlined.

Joseph Ratzinger has been visiting the city regularly since his brother Georg was appointed Domkapellmeister in Regensburg in 1964, and in 1969 he accepted the call to one of the two chairs for dogmatics at the Catholic theological faculty of the newly founded university.

Ratzinger wanted to stay in Regensburg and built a house in nearby Pentling. “But things turned out differently: On March 25, 1977, Prof. Ratzinger was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising by Pope Paul VI.” But he remained connected to his homeland.

In 2006 he visited as Pope Benedict XVI. Regensburg and in 2010 he got his house from the Pope Benedict XVI Foundation. overwritten and the Institute Pope Benedict XVI. entrusted to care. In 2020, Benedikt surprisingly traveled back to his homeland to visit his seriously ill brother. “It was a moving farewell,” says Voderholzer.

The diocese of Regensburg is deeply grateful to the Pope Emeritus for the solidarity, but also for the trust in being able to look after his spiritual heritage with the Institute Pope Benedict.

According to the information, all church bells in the diocese should ring on New Year’s Sunday from 12:00 p.m. to 12:15 p.m. A date for a requiem in Regensburg has not yet been set.