In 1934, a 7-year-old Joseph Ratzinger wrote a touching letter to the Christ Child, requesting three gifts for Christmas. This letter, preserved by his late sister Maria Ratzinger, offers a glimpse into the early life of the boy who would become Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.
The letter was discovered in the family home in Bavaria, Germany, a region known for its Catholic faith. Italian website Korazym reported that the letter was found in 2012 during restoration works at Joseph Ratzinger's birthplace in Marktl am Inn, which is now a museum.
The letter, displayed in the museum, was written in Sütterlin, an old German script no longer in use or taught, making it challenging to read even for native German speakers.
"Dear Baby Jesus, you will soon descend to earth. You want to bring joy to children. You will also bring joy to me," begins Joseph Ratzinger's letter.
"I would like a Volks-Schott, a green chasuble, and a Heart of Jesus. I always want to be good. Greetings from Joseph Ratzinger," concludes the text.
The Volks-Schott (People's Missal) is a German missal with a parallel Latin column, popular at that time. In a 2011 interview with Angela Ambrogetti, director of ACI Stampa, the Italian agency of the ACI Group, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger recalled how he and Joseph played and did many things together as children.
"The two of us would set up the nativity scene together, and then among our most frequent games were spiritual ones, what we called the 'parish priest game,' which we played together, but our sister did not participate in," recounted Mons. Georg Ratzinger, who passed away in Germany in July 2020, shortly after a visit from Benedict XVI who came to say goodbye.
"'We celebrated' Mass with chasubles made by our mother's seamstress just for us. Sometimes I was the priest or the altar boy," he shared.
"From a very young age, we lived the liturgy with love, and this gradually continued into the seminary," until both were ordained priests together on June 29, 1951, on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.
When Archbishop Georg Gänswein, personal secretary to Benedict XVI, told the Pope Emeritus about the discovery a few years ago, he commented that "the Pope was very pleased to rediscover the letter, and its contents made him smile."
Along with Joseph Ratzinger's letter, letters from his siblings Georg and Maria, aged 10 and 13, respectively, were also found. Georg asked for a white chasuble, while Maria requested a book with drawings.
This article was originally published on December 7, 2021.
Walter Sanchez Silva is a senior writer for ACI Prensa. He has experience in researching and covering international ecclesiastical events such as World Youth Days (WYD) in Cologne 2005, Madrid 2011, and Rio 2013; the Fifth General Conference of the Latin American Episcopal Council in Aparecida; as well as the trips of Pope Benedict XVI in May 2007 to Brazil and in 2012 to Mexico. He covered Pope Francis' trip to South Korea in 2014 and the Synods of Bishops in the Vatican in 2015 (on the family) and 2019 (on the Amazon). He was also sent to cover the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 and served as a field producer in Buenos Aires in 2013 for the documentary "Pope Francis: The Pope of the New World".
