Germany gets ready to toast its favorite son

Andy Eckardt Producer

MAINZ, Germany — "Pope Benedict pastries" — sweet cakes with a cross in the middle — fill bakery windows in the small town of Marktl, the birthplace of Pope Benedict XVI, in anticipation of his arrival in the Catholic-dominated Bavarian heartland on Saturday.

Across town, crates of "Benedict Beer" are being brought in for the expected influx of tourists. And souvenir stores have been stocking up on pope memorabilia.

It seems as if the Vatican is following a cue from the World Cup's marketing campaign: colorful pope hats, pope T-shirts, dish-washer friendly pope mugs, pope umbrellas, pope baseball caps and even pope cigarette lighters have been flooding shops.

The small black- red-and-gold German flags that hung proudly from car windows during the soccer world championship have been exchanged for yellow-and-white flags — the colors of the Vatican.

To top it off, Germany's Benedict fans can get a free download of a new pope song, "Habemus Papam,” on the internet. Two young producers from the city of Cologne wrote the English-language pop song, and it's performed by Fabrizio Levita, a finalist in Germany's 2003 Popstar reality show.

At a time when Catholicism continues to lose its appeal in an increasingly secular world, the Vatican hopes the pope’s homecoming, and all the hype surrounding it, will revive the faithful in Germany — home of approximately 26 million Catholics.

Becoming a pop(e) star
The pope's tight schedule only grants him a 15-minute stop in his hometown, so it is unlikely that Benedict will be confronted with his picture on teddy bears or other paraphernalia. The pope’s six-day visit begins on Saturday in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, and includes a visit to Marktl and several other Bavarian towns. And it is indeed questionable if Pope Benedict is at all a fan of all the publicity.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger seemed overwhelmed — almost shocked — in the beginning, when the 115 cardinals elected him Pope Benedict XIV in April 2005.

"As the trend in the ballots slowly made me realize that — in a manner of speaking the guillotine would fall on me — I started to feel quite dizzy," said the new pope, describing his thoughts during the conclave.

"I thought that I had done my life's work and could now hope to live out my days in peace," Benedict told German pilgrims in an audience in April 2005.

In fact, he had attempted to retire several times, while serving as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under John Paul II. Even though the German cardinal was already in his mid-70s, the former pope would not accept his resignation.

For the conservative Benedict, who has repeatedly described himself as "a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord,” the first tough challenge came during the 2005 World Youth Day in Germany, when he faced thousands of Catholic adolescents — his new groupies —who cheered him like a pop star.

Teenagers from all over the world wore their national colors, waved flags and chanted "Be-ne-de-to, Be-ne-de-to" all day long — a new experience for Benedict.

"Pope Benedict is humble. He does not come from the show biz like his predecessor," the head of the Benedict order, Notker Wolf, told Germany's Stern magazine this week. 

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