A neighbor remembers an early childhood trauma:

Teresa, 82, 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."

Benedict visited Marktl am Inn briefly this evening – he was born here, but the family moved when he was two.

On Sunday, the town of 2,700 residents was buzzing with activity as TV crews erected platforms for their cameras as the locals sipped glasses of beer and watched with the familiar gaze of people who have seen it all before.

Since Ratzinger became pope, more than 150,000 people have visited the village, according to the local tourist authorities.

The two local bakers do a roaring trade in Pope Bread and Benedict Tarts, while posters of the pope are everywhere.

"It used to be empty here, but since he became pope it is always full of visitors at the weekend, especially Poles and Italians," said Carola, 41, who was negotiating her bicycle through the crowds on Sunday.

"It has been a positive thing for the town though and our hearts of full of pride that he is one of us."

John Thavis of CNS has several nice tidbits in his piece today:

The pope’s older brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, was among those concelebrating the Mass in the open area in front of the shrine. The crowd spilled into the side streets of the town, where photos of the pope and Vatican flags decorated shop windows.

When Bishop Wilhelm Schraml of Passau greeted the pope on the altar with the words "Welcome home," the crowd erupted in applause. Many of the pilgrims had arrived in the early hours of the morning, starting at 2 a.m., to see the pope.

After the liturgy, the pope led a procession to a new chapel at the sanctuary, where the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed for continual adoration. Pope Benedict spent several minutes praying there.

As he left the chapel, the crowd sang one of the pope’s favorite and most beloved songs of Bavaria, "Segne Du, Maria" ("Bless You, Mary").

The visit:

Marktl-am-Inn, Germany- Pope Benedict XVI visited his birthplace in Germany, the small town of Marktl-am-Inn, departing from his schedule to admire with smiles a birthplace monument erected by proud townsfolk. Amid cheers, he climbed out of his "pope-mobile" to take a closer look at the 2-metre-tall golden column engraved with creation scenes.

Then, as he drove past the two-storeyed house where he was born, Benedict stopped the car and spoke to his secretary, but did not get out. Neither stop had been scheduled, but the pope has repeatedly pleased crowds during the six-day visit by stopping to meet people.

Marktl-am-Inn nearly did not see the pope at all.

Catholic leaders in Germany were upset last year when Marktl shopkeepers slapped "papal" labels on beer and bread so as to boost sales, and reportedly advised the pope not to visit the town.

In the end, the church scheduled a visit to the Marktl parish church, but not to the townspeople’s gilded monument.

At the plain, white-plastered parish church of St Oswald where he was baptized 79 years ago, the pope knelt to pray for a few minutes.

He then stood alongside his brother Georg Ratzinger, 82, to pray at the font where both had been baptized as infants.

The smiling pope also shook hands with dozens of onlookers outside the church, showing no sign of tiredness after the third and busiest day of his trip to Bavaria.