God's Rotweiler

"He kept the teddy from the small [Marktl] shop opposite, which he had wanted so much.  Ultimately, it came to Rome and sat on a chair in the papal apartments."

     Peter Seewald, Benedict XVI:  a life, vol. 1:  youth in Nazi Germany to the Second Vatican Council, 1927-1965, trans. Dinah Livingstone (London:  Bloomsbury, 2020), 17.  Cf. p. 4.  My thanks to Colin Lewis for putting me onto this (earlier) photograph, which I have not, however, authenticated.  Ratzinger was just over two when the family left Marktl for Tittmoning.
     "The professor went on excursions with his students and invited them to supper.  'There was an old-fashioned sofa in his living room with a teddy bear,' Roman Angulanza recalled.  'Ratzinger went up to it and said:  'May I introduce you:  Teddy, this is Mr Angulanza.  Mr Angulanza, this is my Teddy, who has been with me since my childhood days.'  Then all my nervousness was blown away" (322).