It appears that we wouldn’t have His Most Awesomeness Pope Benedict if it weren’t for . . . a personal ad.
It seems, y’see, that his parents met because, way back in 1920, his father placed a personal ad looking for a wife.
(This was in the days before online matchmaking services, of course.)
According to THE STORY,
[The newspaper] Bild am Sonntag (BamS) said 43-year-old Joseph Ratzinger senior placed an advertisement as a "low-level civil servant" seeking "a good Catholic girl, who can cook and sew a bit … to marry as soon as possible, preferably with a picture," in a Bavarian paper in March 1920.
Four months later – by now a "mid-ranking civil servant" – he posted a similar notice in the same paper, and this time received a reply from Maria Peintner, the Pope’s future mother, BamS reported, citing documents from Bavarian state archives.
The second advert in the Altoetting weekly "Liebfrauenbote" stressed the gendarme Ratzinger’s "irreproachable past" and said that while it would be "desirable" if his bride had some money, it was "not a condition" for marriage.
The second ad also seemed to get quick results:
The paper said the couple married in November 1920.
It’s interesting to see the things that the pope’s father was looking for in a bride. They’re–I guess you’d say–very 1920s (money, for example, was hard to come by in Germany between the wars). Still, it kinda gives hope to those of us who are still looking.
(Now let’s see . . . "Senior management apologist with irreproachable past seeks . . . " Oh, well. Maybe another time.)
UPDATE: AmericanPapist writes:
Jimmy – here is the full (awesome) text of the personal ad Pope Benedict’s father placed :
“Middle-ranking civil servant, single, Catholic, 43, immaculate past, from the country, is looking for a good Catholic, pure girl who can cook well, tackle all household chores, with a talent for sewing and homemaking with a view to marriage as soon as possible. Fortune desirable but not a precondition” [SOURCE].
Jimmy – here is the full (awesome) text of the personal ad Pope Benedict’s father placed :
“Middle-ranking civil servant, single, Catholic, 43, immaculate past, from the country, is looking for a good Catholic, pure girl who can cook well, tackle all household chores, with a talent for sewing and homemaking with a view to marriage as soon as possible. Fortune desirable but not a precondition.”
source: [url]http://www.americanpapist.com/2006/09/pope-benedicts-parents-met-through.html[/url]
Now all we need is to get their beatification cause moving so we can name them the patron saints of online personals!
I guess they didn’t have catholicmatch.com :o)
Mike,
that is so silly 🙂
There is a real humility in the ad, IMO. Wow. That’s really cool.
Yup, with an “immaculate past”, how could one be anything but humble.
OK now I finally have the courage to admit that I met my husband the same way!! Does this mean my kid will be pope!!!
http://www.realclearreligion.com
You mean you applied for a job as a maid and got married soon thereafter?
Yup, with an “immaculate past”, how could one be anything but humble.
I would take this phrase of Herr Joseph Sr.’s, not as an assertion of impeccability, but as expressing a more humble, if not unimpressive, fact: that he was a 43-year old virgin.
You mean you applied for a job as a maid and got married soon thereafter?
That’s a cruel and insulting thing to say.
I don’t suppose Mrs. Ratzinger thought it was. She had the humility to apply for the position, and the boss recognized it and married the MAIDen.
I really hope this doesn’t get ugly, but my reaction to Hazel would be, I’m a homemaker, I tackle the chores, cook and sew a bit, and didn’t have a dime to my name, but my husband was still willing to marry me. I don’t consider myself a maid–I feel free in a way that a woman wage servant never will be.
I feel free in a way that a woman wage servant never will be.
Such freedom would seem to be indicated–for example–by the fact that your husband *married* you instead of just hiring you.
Marriage is a commitment that goes *far* beyond hiring.
If you aren’t interested in making a commitment for life to someone, you can get a maid *far* easier.
Let’s stop with the denigrating of those who make a home for the familes of which they are an *integral* part and who cannot simply be *fired.*
Someone has a feminist chip on her shoulder.
I’m ignoring most of the above comments and sticking with Jimmy’s title, “Aww, that’s sweet.”
Lots of aspects of this story make me smile, the sorts of things that if you have to explain them, they lose their lightness.
Perhaps feminists should realize that homemakers do not “serve” the career person. They actually fulfill a household role whereby the career person is actually dependent on them. That’s the attitude I see coming from Mr. Ratzingher too. He’s humble, and realizes he can’t to it all himself.
CaeliDS,
If you don’t like others denigrating your choice to be a homemaker perhaps you should return the favor and not denigrate women who work outside the home as unfree “wage servants.” Would you have called St Gianna Molla (a working mom who was a doctor) this?
I don’t understand why the homemaker vs working mom has to be a debate in the first place (since neither choice is sinful in itself – both can certainly be abused – but in themselves they aren’t matters of mortal sin). I don’t see why this debate has to get so nasty either. Why can’t people be satisfied with the arrangements that work best for their families without slamming families who have done things differently? If you’re happy as a stay at home mom, if that’s been what’s best for your family, then why waste your time bashing working moms? If you’re happy as a working mom, if that’s been what’s best for your family, why waste your time bashing stay at home moms?
It’s very busy-body to be so concerned about the choices other families make about this matter, especially when one doesn’t know the circumstances or reasons that led to such choices (particularly finances). Can’t we all just get along?
AJP,
This is the blogosphere. Of course we can’t get along.
*grin*
Whoa..whoa…whoa!
I was not in any way intending to “bash” anybody. If anything, Hazel started the bashing by adopting what, IMHO, was a mean-spirited tone. So I rejoindered with a sprited reply. And now I’m the one getting bashed.
I’m sorry this “debate” (which is legitimate, mind you) gets so poisonous whenever it comes up. I certainly sympathize with people who can’t make ends meet without two wage-earners. But there is NO support in the public sphere for stay at home moms. So when someone comes along implying that so-and-so posted an ad looking for a wife that could cook and do chores must have been looking for a maid, I feel it is within my rights to express the opposite view. I meant no disrepect. Turn off the flamethrower, please.