Chico (cat)

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Chico (1996–2012) was a red tabby domestic cat who had a personal relationship with Cardinal Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI. was said. Chico is the lyrical I of the children's book Joseph and Chico: A cat tells from the life of Pope Benedict XVI. and was voted "Cat of the Year 2008" at the Westchester Cat Show .

Life

Chico was born in 1996 and belonged to Rupert Hofbauer from Pentling . Joseph Ratzinger, then cardinal bishop and later cardinal dean , lived in Pentling at that time as a direct neighbor of Hofbauer, who was also the administrator of his private house. At that time, Chico liked to be on the neighboring property and had a close relationship with Ratzinger. Among other things, he is said to have listened to him playing the piano.

As Ratzinger then to Pope Benedict XVI. became known to the world as his love for cats. Even as a cardinal in Rome, the Pope took care of sick cats, which were often run into on St. Peter's Square . The story of Chico was also known, which was unofficially ennobled to the "Pope Cat".

The journalist and children's book author Jeanne Perego , who heard about Pope Benedict's love of cats, then wrote a children's book that made Chico the main character in a papal biography for children. For this she got the permission of the Vatican and also traveled to Pentling to photograph the cat. The children's book illuminates Ratzinger's life from birth and ends with the election of the Pope. Benedikt's private secretary Georg Gänswein contributed the foreword . The book was translated into several languages ​​and Chico became a children's book star. The Westchester Cat Show therefore named the animal “Cat of the Year” in 2008.

Georg Ratzinger , Benedict XVI's older brother, later scratched the cat's image. In his book My Brother, the Pope , he stated that the hangover could also get angry and scratched and bitten. Hofbauer vehemently contradicted this, Benedict XVI. I also asked about Chico during the papal era.

Chico died in the fall of 2012.

literature

  • Jeanne Perego: Joseph and Chico: A cat tells from the life of Pope Benedict XVI. Herder, Freiburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-451-70883-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interview: Martin Zips: "The two really liked each other" . In: sueddeutsche.de . 2010, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed April 8, 2018]).
  2. ↑ Stuttgarter Nachrichten, Stuttgart, Germany: The Pope's secret cats . In: stuttgarter-nachrichten.de . ( stuttgarter-nachrichten.de [accessed April 8, 2018]).
  3. ↑ Abendzeitung, Germany: Bavaria: Vortex around the pope cat "Chico" - Abendzeitung Munich . ( Abendzeitung-muenchen.de [accessed on April 8, 2018]).
  4. ↑ Pope Kater is cat of the year now . In: bild.de . ( bild.de [accessed on April 8, 2018]).
  5. ↑ Mittelbayerische.de: Pope-Kater Chico from Pentling in New York elected "Cat of the Year" . In: Mittelbayerische Zeitung . ( Mittelbayerische.de [accessed on April 8, 2018]).
  6. ↑ Roast Satan on four legs . In: sueddeutsche.de . September 12, 2011, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed April 8, 2018]).
  7. ↑ WORLD: Feature: Pentling dreams of the return of the Pope . In: THE WORLD . February 12, 2013 ( welt.de [accessed April 8, 2018]).