Ettal Abbey, Bavaria, Germany -- Besides altars and confessionals, a few other items decorate the rotunda -- but some are a bit incongruous such as this bust of the Jesuit Rupert Mayer. This bronzed and modern Rupert faces Straub's marble rococo statue of the medieval St. Rupert's statue sitting on the base of the pulpit. (We'll see that in a few slides.)This Rupert is on track to be a saint (John Paul II beatified him in 1987). He was a leader of the Catholic Resistance to the Nazis. (The Abbey at Ettal was one of the centers of such resistance and the Nazis eventually put him under house arrest here.) An amputee from WWI and a concentration camp survivor, Mayer was felled by a stroke while saying mass on the first All Saints Day after WWII ended. The local Ratzinger boy who was drafted at age 16 into the German army and now serves as pope may move Father Rupert's cause forward. Benedict XVI's parents venerated Mayer -- and Benedict thinks Europe needs a modern saint who knew what a truly good German was.
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