Pope's Brother: Benedict XVI Still Feels Fresh

Regensburg (kath.net/KNA)  Pope Benedict XVI. is in good health and "relatively fresh" according to his brother Msgr Georg Ratzinger.  Bayrischen Rundfunk (BR) said the earlier leader of the "Regensburg Cathedral Circle" in an interview on Christmas, that the Pope is in good health.  "My brother is still relatively fresh, he is holding up in work and that -- I believe -- already helps to stay fresh and not mentally damed up."  The limitations of age are bearable for the Pope.  Pope Benedict XVI has difficulties with mobility, but in age everything is "a bit more difficult".

Georg Ratzinger, who himself will be 89 years old on the 15th of January, will celebrate Christmas with the Monastery Chapter in St. John's in Regensburg.   On the 28th of December he will be traveling back to Rome he says.  He has already picked out a gift for his brother.  Among several CDs is a selection of the H Sharp Mass of Johann Sebastian Bach, which the Pope wanted.  The gifts can't measure up in the midst of the Christmas festivities.  "He has everything what he needs and to attend to rarities -- that doesn't go at my age any more and real rarities are also too expensive", says Ratzinger.

The evenings on the end of December and the beginning of January, which Georg Ratzinger spends with his brother in the Vatican, are not very impressive, says the one time Cathedral Kapellmeister.  Thus the learned church musician plays the piano for the closes circle of Papal colleagues, among whom two are cloistered nuns, and the secretary sings Christmas songs.  Cookies and punch are brought along too.

Link to kath.net...