Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI Pilgrimage

Led by Denis Kitzinger, Fellow and Dean

9-Day Pilgrimage to Bavaria | May 24–June 1, 2026

Joseph Ratzinger Pilgrimage

Like St John Paul II, whose companion and friend Ratzinger was to be as Cardinal and prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), and whose successor he would become, Joseph Ratzinger grew up in the shadow of the Nazi evil. But more importantly, and again like St JPII, also under the protection of our Lady, who crushes the serpent under her feet (foreseen by the prophet Elijah). Both JPII and Benedict XVI were born but 30 kilometers from sites associated with the evils of Nazism – Ratzinger 30km from neighboring Braunau, the city of Hitler’s birth; JPII in Wadowizce, 30 kilometers from Auschwitz, one of the concentration camps employed in the “final solution”, the murder of 6 million Jews. Yet nearer to both of them were two sites of Marian apparitions: St. John Paul II near Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (the crying icon of our blessed mother) and Benedict near Altötting.

Until the end of his life, Benedict XVI, nay Joseph Alois Ratzinger, knew himself a proud son of Bavaria. Visits to his homeland were the Holy Father’s favorite, to where the springs of his character and his intellectual and interior life – his spirituality – are found. Here, in southeastern Bavaria, the culture is Catholic, rooted in the Church, with a profound devotion to our Blessed Mother.

On this pilgrimage, pilgrims follow the spiritual and biographical journey of Benedict XVI through his beloved Bavaria. The spiritual center of this pilgrimage is Our Lady of Altötting, the most important Marian shrine in Bavaria, in all of German speaking Europe. There, one can experience the deep Catholicity that enveloped young Joseph from his earliest childhood. The little sculpture of our Lady of Altötting is so called because of her blackened appearance due to centuries of candle smoke lit by the innumerable faithful who have come to adore her. Our Lady is adorned by many precious stones that the noble ladies of the royal Bavarian House of Wittelsbach gifted to her over many generations. In 2006 during his papal visit to his beloved homeland, as a sign of his enduring devotion and gratitude, Benedict XVI again visited her. He bestowed on her his bishop’s ring. Now, pilgrims visiting Altötting see Our Lady bearing the episcopal ring of Joseph Ratzinger from his time when he was Archbishop of Munich and Freising.

The Catholic traditions and life in the Bavaria of the interwar period – Joseph was born on April 16, 1927 - were lived out fully by the deeply and beautifully Catholic Ratzinger family with frequent visits to Our Lady of Altötting, the “black Madonna”.

Join Dean Dr. Denis Kitzinger, Vice President Mr. Paul Jackson, and Dr. Michael Taylor on this pilgrimage in the footsteps of Joseph Ratzinger/Bendict XVI.: from Marktl am Inn, his birthplace, to Munich, the final stop as archbishop and Cardinal before his departure to Rome upon his appointment to the former Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) by Pope John Paul II. Pilgrims will pray where Benedict prayed; will see nature’s beauty that spoke of the majesty of God; will taste the Bavarian spirituality imparted into the very stones of the churches and shrines.

The first part of the pilgrimage will be spent right in Altötting; the second part of the pilgrimage will be stationed in Munich. All travel will be by motor car. It is possible but optional to travel by foot on the many “Wanderwege” and the “Benedict Route” to the various sites.

The Spirit of the Pilgrim at Thomas More College

“The education at Thomas More College is marked by a spirit of pilgrimage. In pilgrimage, we discover a foretaste of that peerless end of a true Catholic formation: the arduous journey that culminates in the arrival at the heavenly city. The College Coat of Arms bears three shells—the symbol of the peregrinus, the earthly traveler searching for holiness while still on earth. In the Middle Ages, man was described as a homo viator: a wanderer, a pilgrim, since his final citizenship was in Heaven. A central part of the Thomas More education is the experience of extended pilgrimage to Rome, the center of our Faith and culture, and from Rome often to other sites: Monte Cassino, Assisi, Santiago de Compostela, Krakow, and Altötting. The movement and action of the pilgrim itself symbolizes something unique in Christian and Western culture: the idea of Man as one who thinks and acts, who does not withdraw into a theoretical life but moves into a fruitful life; the idea of the human as most fully alive when he does not shun beauty, nor limit it to a concept, but when he desires to see it abundantly and knows that he sees it best by making it manifest. All the goods of his intellectual vision compel him towards a noble creativity. His world is not just to be turned over in the pages of his mind, but felt, shaped, and shared, made tangible for others to experience.”

Dr. Denis Kitzinger is a native of Flörsheim, Germany. Before his arrival in the United States in 2002, he studied political philosophy at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, the former seat of St. Boniface, Apostle to the Germans. In April of 2007, after years of discernment and study of “Pope Benedict’s Catechism” as well as the Holy Father’s many other writings and Wednesday catechesis, Dr. Kitzinger entered the Catholic Church. In love with the Church and the Truth, Dr. Kitzinger wrote his dissertation on the German Catholic Philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand, a native of Munich, for whom Benedict XVI had profound regard and appreciation.

Dr. Kitzinger completed his master’s degree at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy and holds a Ph.D. in modern intellectual history from St. Andrews University in Scotland. He resides in Nashua, NH with his wife, Dr. Sara Kitzinger, and their three sons, Josef, Philipp, and Nikolas.