{"id":3813,"date":"2006-12-24T11:04:01","date_gmt":"2006-12-24T11:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/the-popes-christmas.html"},"modified":"2006-12-24T11:04:01","modified_gmt":"2006-12-24T11:04:01","slug":"the-popes-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/the-popes-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"The Pope’s Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via PRF:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

But for the Pope’s home-style Christmas at the Vatican, everything is ready. Munich banker Thaddaeus Kuehnel has seen to it, as he has done for 25 years for his friend, then-Cardinal Ratzinger. <\/p>\n

For 25 years, he has faithfully delivered to Rome every Christmastime everything that brings joy to a Bavarian in the holiday season: sausage,. Advent wreaths, ham, baked goodies, Kloster beer. <\/p>\n

Thanks to Kuehnel’s last trip over the Brenner Pass,the Christmas room in the Papal apartments now looks like that of the Schulzes or the Hubers anywhere in Germany. <\/p>\n

There are two Christmas trees in the Pope’s living room. Until a few days ago, they were growing in the Bavarian woods on the property of a farming family in Waldingen. Then Kuehnel came, the treees were chosen and chopped, and he strapped both trees securely to his car roof. They would not be unbound again until Kuehnel reached the courtyard of the Apostolic palace. <\/p>\n

From that time, the trees became the responsibility of Carmela, Emanuela, Loredana and Christina, the Pope’s lay nun housekeepers. They not only decorated the trees, but also have to prepare the main dish for Christmas dinner from a deer shot by a Swabian hunter, Gisbert Sattler, earlier this week. <\/p>\n

Kuehnel also brought the Pope a variety of cookies made by Bavarian cloistered nuns – vanilla Kipferl, anise cookies, cinnamon stars, jam-filled cookies, and Stollen (a Christmas cake). <\/p>\n

"The Holy Father has a weakness for sweet things," says Sister Irma. <\/p>\n

The Pope’s brother, Georg, flies to Rome on December 28, but even on Christmas Eve, the Pope will be wallowing in memories of Christmas past, as he loves to do, according to those who have known him in Rome for long. <\/p>\n

In the Christmas room of the Apostolic Palace, he has put up the creche that has been with him since was a professor in Regensburg. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Today’s Angelus:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

As Christmas draws near, the pope has called upon all Christians to rediscover the richness of the mystery that will be celebrated tonight and not to marginalize and forget Him, \u201cthe protagonist\u201d of the feast that we are about to hold. <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking during the Angelus prayer to pilgrims gathered in St Peter\u2019s Square, Benedict XVI outlined diverse aspects about Christmas of the Christian faith. \u201cOur salvation is made manifest in the divine newborn who we will set down on the crib. In God who becomes man for us, we all feel loved and welcome; we discover that we are precious and unique in the eyes of the Creator. The Christmas of Christ helps us to become aware of the value of human life, the life of each and every human being, from his first moment to his natural sunset. To those who open their hearts to this \u2018child wrapped in swaddling clothes\u2019 and lying \u2018in a manger\u2019 (cfr Lk <\/span><\/p>\n

2:12<\/span><\/p>\n

), he offers the opportunity of looking at daily reality with new eyes. He may taste the power of the inner captivation of God\u2019s love, which succeeds in turning even sorrow into joy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The schedule for the next day, to be broadcast on Vatican TV, and available online. <\/a><\/p>\n

You can also listen on Vatican Radio.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Via PRF: But for the Pope’s home-style Christmas at the Vatican, everything is ready. Munich banker Thaddaeus Kuehnel has seen to it, as he has done for 25 years for his friend, then-Cardinal Ratzinger. For 25 years, he has faithfully delivered to Rome every Christmastime everything that brings joy to a Bavarian in the holiday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Pope's Christmas - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/the-popes-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Pope's Christmas - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Via PRF: But for the Pope’s home-style Christmas at the Vatican, everything is ready. Munich banker Thaddaeus Kuehnel has seen to it, as he has done for 25 years for his friend, then-Cardinal Ratzinger. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3813\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}