New pope's brother 'shocked'

2005-04-20 15:14

Berlin - The elder brother of Germany's Joseph Ratzinger said on Wednesday he was "shocked" to hear the ageing cardinal had been elected Pope Benedict XVI, fearing the gruelling schedule would be too much for his frail health.

"I am very concerned. I would have thought his advanced age and his health, which is not very stable, would have been reason enough for the cardinals to pick someone else," said Georg Ratzinger, 81, in an interview on German public television on the choice of his 78-year-old brother.

"But the cardinals made their decision and that is the will of God," said Ratzinger, himself a prelate.

Georg Ratzinger, who said earlier this month that he did not believe his brother had a chance at being elected pope because of his age and his German nationality, said he was "shocked" by the election.

"I got used to the idea during the night but it is still overwhelming," he added.

Although the white-haired cardinal was considered a frontrunner from the start to succeed John Paul II, Ratzinger's shaky health history - including a stroke in the 1980s - was thought to be a mark against him.

Joseph Ratzinger frequently visited his brother in the southern German town of Regensburg, even after he became a cardinal in 1977, and owns a home in the suburb of Pentling.

But Georg Ratzinger said he had yet to speak with his brother following his election and expected to see him less often as he takes on the job as the globetrotting leader of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics.

"We will still have close ties but we will be much less in contact," he said, adding that he would try to reach him in the coming days when the media circus had died down.

As the world scrambled for reaction to the election from those who know the new pope best, the spotlight fell briefly on Georg Ratzinger's housekeeper, Agnes Heindl.

While Benedict XVI's brother slumped stunned and speechless before the newscasts from Rome after hearing the news, Heindl became an instant media star, giving dozens of interviews about his state of mind.

"He sank before the television and isn't saying a word," Heindl told German news agency DPA late on Tuesday in just one of her minute-by-minute accounts.

"I've never seen him like this," she said.

- AFP