Eichstätt, June 27 to July 5.
Site of the only Catholic university in Germany.

This ancient seat of Prince Bishops north of Munich was a principal site for the initial evangelization of the German lands. Its first bishop, St. Willibald, was ordained here by his uncle St. Boniface in 741. His relics are still venerated in a Baroque shrine nestled in the back of the great Gothic cathedra in townl. The relics of his sister St. Walburga are venerated in the Benedictine Abbey that bears her name. We will be given a tour of the church by Sister Angela and will pray along as the nuns sing Vespers. There will be excursions to the Prince Bishops’ fortress, Willibaldsburg and a pilgrimage to the Marian chapel of Frauenberg, or “Mary Mount”. Leaving the small town of Eichstätt, we will travel to Freising, the original site of the Archdiocese of Munich with its great cathedral and bishops’ fortress. Father Ratzinger taught at the seminary here. Then a day will be spent in Catholic Munich with its Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque churches, its lively markets, and the playful bells and statuary of the Town Hall clock. Lectures will cover the early history of Catholicism in Germany, Church-State relations today, the intellectual tradition of Pope Benedict, the conversation with Islam provoked by his Regenburg Address and points of intellectual contact between Islam and the Church and Benedicts efforts at liturgical restoration