Pope Benedict XVI has a Kerala connection (Was New Pope)

[Guest guest]

New Delhi, April 20: While the world cheers Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

elected as the next Pope to lead 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, a priest in Kerala

remembers the man as a friend who helped build a church in Alappuzha.

 

Father Abraham Kakkanattu, director of the Pushpagiri Medical College

in Thiruvalla, is the first Indian who can claim that Pope Benedict

XVI is a friend of the Catholic Church in India.

 

He remembers how the pontiff as archbishop of Munich provided

financial aid for a church in Chungam, Alappuzha district.

 

.... The faithful in Chungam did not forget the timely help either. They

installed a marble plaque saying that the church was constructed with

the generous support of Joseph Ratzinger, archbishop of Munich.

 

The cardinal is now Pope Benedict XVI, and the Chungam church can

boast of its special link with the new pontiff.

 

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