Pope celebrates 80th birthday
16/04/2007 13:10  - (SA)  

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Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI celebrates his 80th birthday on Monday with a lunch at the Vatican in the company of about 50 cardinals and a VIP concert in his honour in the afternoon.

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Benedict's personal secretary, Father Georg Gaenswein, said the pope had received a variety of gifts, including music CDs, books, flowers and a large teddy bear.

Ordinary Catholics were able to wish him well during a Mass in St Peter's Square on Sunday attended by an estimated 50 000 people.

In an unusually personal homily, the pope referred to the conclusion of a large part of his life and gave thanks for his family and friends.

"I thank God to have been able to experience the meaning of family ... I thank God to have experienced deeply what maternal love means ... I thank God for my brothers and sisters, who have stood by side and helped me throughout my life," German-born Joseph Ratzinger said, speaking in Italian.

His birthday was also celebrated in Marktl am Inn, the Bavarian town where the future pope was born on April 16, 1927.

After a lunch with fellow cardinals on Monday, Benedict planned to attend a concert by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonin Dvorak.

A keen pianist, Benedict was expected to be greeted by Italian diva Sofia Loren and other VIPs at Vatican's Nervi Hall, daily Corriere della Sera reported.

Vatican employees were to share in the celebrations with a day off plus a gratuity of €500 each.

Monday is also the day in which Jesus of Nazareth: From Baptism to the Transfiguration, Ratzinger's first book as pope, is published.

Ratzinger was elected as the spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church on April 19, 2005, just three days after his 78th birthday.

Sapa-dpa

- SAPA

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