Brush With Greatness, Once Removed

Okay, so here’s a strange thing. I was reading this morning about the new Pope (Benedict XVI to you), and it turns out that he’s from a town in Bavaria called Traunstein. Well, it just so happens that Traunstein is the town that my father was stationed at after World War II. And then it turns out that the Benedict XVI’s home was used by the US Army as their headquarters. So, there is a very real chance that my father met the once and future pope back when he was grading parts of southern Germany with an Army-issue bulldozer. I have photos him that I will post once we get moved and get the scanner set up next week.

And did I mention that we were moving this weekend? Just down the road to a bigger, nicer apartment in nicer, more affluent complex.

But my Dad had a brush with greatness back in 1945 and ’46. They would have been close in age, my Dad being about a year older. Here they were, one yearning for a career in the priesthood, the other hoping to avoid being shipped out to the Pacific Theater of Operations. My Dad learned a little German while he was there, and loved the town.

It’s a small world when there are so few degrees of separation between a louse like me and the Pope. At least it will give us some small talk to make if I ever meet him at a cocktail party.