German-born Pope Benedict XVI begins an emotional, six-day homecoming to his birthplace and the city where he served as a priest and bishop today.

Pope Benedict XVI will visit Germany in September next year, the second time he will visit his native land since becoming pontiff, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, archbishop of Munich, said today.

German-born Pope Benedict XVI took to the broad Rhine river to preach to his flock from the bow of a cruise ship on his homecoming trip to his native land - his first foreign trip as Pope.

The owner of the house in southern Germany where Pope Benedict XVI was born today said she planned to sell it because swarms of tourists were making her life impossible.

A TRADITIONAL German tuba band blared and free beer were on tap last night in the main square in the southern German town where Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, was born.

STUDENTS at the seminary where Joseph Ratzinger studied for the priesthood as a teenager in the 1940s erupted in cheers yesterday at the news that their townsman had become the leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

Students at the seminary where Joseph Ratzinger studied for the priesthood as a teenager in the 1940s erupted in cheers today at the news that their townsman had become the leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger alienated some Roman Catholics in Germany with his zeal enforcing church orthodoxy. But in the conservative Alpine foothills of Bavaria where he grew up, he remains a favourite son who many think will make a good pope.