Germany: Pope Benedict returned to his Bavarian birthplace of Marktl am Inn yesterday to pray before the font where he was baptised.
On an exhausting third day of his trip home, the 79-year-old pontiff expressed regret at the falling numbers of Catholic priests around the world but urged existing priests to avoid "empty activism" and stick to their core spiritual work.
"Whenever priests, because of their many duties, allot less and less time to being with the Lord, they eventually lose - for all their often heroic activity - the inner strength that sustains them," he told church leaders.
The pope said Mass at the Marian shrine of Altötting, one of the holiest sites in Germany, attracting 1.2 million pilgrims annually including, decades ago, the Ratzinger family.
He also prayed before the statue of the Black Madonna, a small, linden-wood statue that has been revered for half a century. It is housed in a sanctuary containing, in silver urns, the hearts of several Bavarian kings and princes who swore allegiance to Mary.
Pope Benedict told worshippers to follow their example, to "learn how to pray" from Mary and to "accept God's will and to accept that his answer is good for us".
The German pope was joined during Mass by his older brother, Mng Georg Ratzinger, the retired choir director of Regensburg Cathedral. The two men, ordained on the same day in 1951, made the return journey together to Marktl am Inn and visited the neo-Gothic church where the baby Joseph Ratzinger was baptised, four hours after his birth, on Easter Saturday 1927.
As the two stood in silent prayer at the century-old baptism font, Georg brushed away a tear while his brother appeared deep in meditation.
Pope Benedict had to press Vatican diplomats to make room in his hectic six-day schedule to visit Marktl and, in the end, just a 15-minute visit was scheduled.
Casting aside protocol, the pope worked his way through the crowd, shaking hands, kissing babies and chatting to locals. He passed by, but didn't enter, the house where he was born. It has been bought by a Catholic foundation and will open soon as a museum.
"He was likeable to me from the start. He's got a cool attitude, old-fashioned in his beliefs but somehow modern. He stands for old values," said Johanna, a 25-year-old nurse.
