Believers gather at Bavarian pilgrimage town to mourn pope

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER
Associated Press

ALTOETTING, Germany (AP) — Mourners lined up quietly in the Collegiate Church of Altoetting in Pope Benedict XVI’s Bavarian homeland to pay condolences to one of the region’s most famous sons. The former pope died at age 95 in Rome, but many Catholic Bavarians have always felt especially close to him because of their shared ancestry. In the pilgrimage town of Altoetting, just a few miles from the village of Marktl where Benedict was born in 1927, believers wrote down their thoughts in a book of condolence. They prayed, lit candles and put down flowers for the deceased pope. The state government in Bavaria ordered that flags on regional government buildings be flown at half-staff.