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Catholic World News News Feature

Pope enjoys quiet 80th birthday celebration April 16, 2007

Pope Benedict XVI spent his 80th birthday quietly at the Vatican, receiving a special delegation of visitors from his native Germany in the morning and a luncheon with members of the College of Cardinals.

Later the Pope was to be presented with a portrait of himself, commissioned by the Vatican and done by the Russian artist Natalia Tsarkova.

In the evening, the Pontiff was to attend a concert performed in his honor by the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra. The concert was to be televised in Italy by Rai Uno.

Also on the Pope's birthday, April 16, his new book Jesus of Nazareth went on sale in Italy, with 350,000 copies available from the first press run.

The Holy Father had celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Square on Sunday, the day before his birthday, with a congregation of well over 50,000 gathering to join in the Pope's celebration.

On Monday morning the Pope received birthday greetings from German visitors including Edmund Stoiber, the minister-president of Bavaria; and Peter Harry Castensen, the minister-president of Schleswig-Holstein. He next received a delegation from the Munich archdiocese, where he was archbishop from 1977 to 1982. The Munich delegation, led by retired Cardinal Friedrich Wetter (who had succeeded then-Cardinal Ratzinger in 1982), brought a case of beer as a birthday present.

The Pope also received the Orthodox Metropolitan Ioannis Zizioulas of Pergamo, who conveyed the greetings of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.

During the day the Pope received scores of congratulatory messages from religious and political leaders. Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II sent a message stressing the similarities between his thoughts and those of the Pontiff, and remarking that they formed "the solid basis on which collaboration between the Russian Orthodox and Catholic churches can be built."

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano-- one of dozens of heads of state who released birthday greetings-- mentioned the "deep and longstanding links between Italy and the Holy See" and wished the Holy Father "long life and good health."