PLACES OF BIRTH
Curious about where the predecessors of
Pope Francis were born? There’s no need to
research—you can get all the details right here!Benedict XVI
Marktl am Inn is a small town in Bavaria,
a hundred kilometers away from Munich
and near the border of Austria. On
number 11 of Schulstraße, there is a
white house with a dark brown, sloping
roof. It was here, on April 16, 1927, that
Joseph Ratzinger was born.Paul VI
In a town in the province of Brescia,
there is an old pink farmhouse on Via
Rodolfo da Concesio No. 24. Visitors
are directed to the right of the entrance,
where there is a high relief depicting the
bust of Pope Paul VI. On September 26,
1897, Giovanni Battista Montini was born
in this very house. The farmhouse is
now home to the Research Center of the
Paolo VI Institute.John Paul II
Along Koscielna Street No. 7 (formerly
Rynek Street No. 2) in Wadowice,
Poland, is the house where Karol Józef
Wojtyla was born on May 18, 1920. The
building overlooks a colorful square a
few meters away from a church. Today,
it is a highly visited home museum.John XXIII
Still in the Lombardy region but this time
in the province of Bergamo, is another
farmhouse along Via Colombera at
No. 5 in Sotto il Monte Giovanni XXIII.
Nicknamed “The Palace,” it was the
residence of the Roncalli family—all
32 of them. It was at The Palace that
Angelo Guiseppe Roncalli was born, on
November 25, 1881. Now, like the other
former popes’ houses, it has been
turned into a home museum.that allows us to banish any
sort of misunderstanding,”
says Daniel. “We all must
recognize, value, and care
about our cultural heritage
as a means to safeguard the
collective memory.” As Pope
Francis would emphatically
say, we need to “make
memories.”2 Calle Membrillar 531 (Flores)4 Technical School No. 27 (Monte Castro)
6 Metropolitan Seminary (Villa Devoto)8 Archbishopric (San Nicolas)PHOTO FROM LA PRESSE, GOOGLE MAPS, PIXABAY, ILARIA SANTINI (MAP ILLUSTRATION), AND VATICAN MEDIA.