MARKTL-AM-INN, Germany (AFP) – Teresa, 82 years old now, remembers how young Joseph Ratzinger would dash out of his family’s house and press his nose against the window of the shop across the road.
“He was looking at a teddy bear. He wanted it so much that he would stand there gazing at it,” Teresa said. “He was only two years old. I was a little older, but I wanted that teddy too. “Then I remember that one day Joseph was in floods of tears. The teddy bear had gone from the window. I cried too!
“But what we didn’t know was that his mother had bought him it for Christmas. I had to settle for a doll.”
Teresa was three years older than Joseph, who was born in the small Bavarian town of Marktl-am-Inn on April 16, 1927, an Easter Saturday. His father, Joseph senior, was the local policeman and his mother, Maria, a cook.
The little boy who got the teddy bear he so dearly wanted grew up to become archbishop of Munich and then held one of the most senior posts in the Vatican before, three days after his 78th birthday, he was elected pope following the death of John Paul II.
(Original Link (AFP) http://www.sawfnews.com/lifestyle/20688.aspx)
Thanks to the Facebook group Circle of Rosary founded by Father Piotr Wisniowski
I too am a Teddy Bear Lover…even my car license plate says “Teddy Bear Lovers Give Great Hugs”
teddy bears are awesome! the story adds a human touch to the man who often seems rather distant! p.s. my oldest son used to be called teddy ..now he’s ted.. i still add the bear!
nice one!!!what a very nice story!!!!:))))
memories during childhood could be vivid, but something you’ve had for a long time, and remembering how you have gotten it is the best part of reminscing.
Such a wonderful story. Such a wonderful man!
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God bless our beloved Pope.
I love this story, it shows that the Pope began like every child. I also like the picture at the beginning of the article, showing the Pope reading a newspaper.
When I look at a Teddy Bear, I have the immediate need to hold onto it, to protect it, and to love it! Something so little, and so helpless as a teddy bear may help little children to realize that they are really much like the teddy bear, and that by reaching out to cuddle and love that little bear, they are really allowing themselves to give to another what they so much want for themselves, and that is to feel loved, and cared for. When a small child is able to give in this way, they learn what it means to trust all the good God the Father has given to them in their person, in their soul. Our Holy Father indeed knows this, and must have learned this in many ways as a child. Unless you become as a little child, you shall not inherit the Kingdom of God…
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