Note some other telling elements of the story.
Another interview was reported by Andrea Tornielli in Il Giornale of July 17, 2008.
Actually, very little of the article was ‘another interview’. Most of the quotes are copied from the Canberra Times article or practiced responses identical to that article. All of it repeats an unverified anecdote.
Steffie is a second cousin of Benedict XVI
The original article claimed she was a first cousin.
It is not easy to convince her to talk about her famous cousin … she almost seems to have regretted it. "Yes," she confirms, a little hesitant and surprised to have been contacted by Il Giornale. … It is not easy to get a few more details about that phone call. "What we talked about - is a private matter, it concerns me and him, it concerns two cousins who had not spoken for fifty years... “.
This smacks of someone who made up a story that has now spun out of control.
We ask her if a face-to-face meeting with Benedict XVI is planned in these days. "So far no, no one has called me, no one has invited me. I was supposed to come to Sydney, to meet him, but I can't move from Cooma, I'm not able to drive, I'm old."
So which is it? You weren’t invited or contacted, or you were supposed to go to Sydney to meet him but you can’t? It’s a contradictory panic response.
May I ask you what Benedict XVI was like as a child? "He was always where he shouldn't be... If I think about it today, it is a miracle that we are still alive," she adds
Her responses are lifted from the original story, or a rehearsed response, and remain as vague as the first time.
alluding to the liveliness of little Joseph, who one day, in Aschau am Inn, the town where the Ratzingers had moved in 1932 after leaving Tittmoning, one day fell into the pond where large carp were swimming. An episode that the pontiff himself recalls in his autobiography, published in 1997: "Once, while I was playing, I was there to drown."
These details are speculation added by Il Giornale rather than quoting Brzokovic, but could be known by anyone with access to his 1997 biography.
"At first I thought it was a joke. He told me he was 'Ratzinger-Pepi', using the nickname they called him as a child." Finally Steffie realizes that it is not a joke and that she is talking on the phone with him. "I said to him: 'Are you the Pope?' And he replied: 'Yes, but for you I am still Ratzinger-Pepi'".
More quotes lifted or rehearsed from the original story.
as the woman had already revealed to the Canberra Times three years ago
Direct confirmation from Il Giornale that the article is quoting material from the original Canberra Times piece.
"He told me: 'You are doing the work we should do'", referring to the missionary activity of Jehovah's Witnesses, who go from house to house to meet people. "He also told me: 'You have halls that are not so big, but they are full, we have cathedrals, churches and chapels, but they are often empty.'"
More comments lifted or rehearsed from the original article, and completely consistent with how a JW might embellish a story to give the appearance of interest.
PS… I see someone really doesn’t like rational analysis of unverified anecdotes. 😂 I hope I can cope with the ‘dislike’.
