“Ratzinger‑Pepi”
and the Myth of the Australian Witness
Why the
Stefanie Brzakovic story collapses under scrutiny
1. A
headline too good to check
In April 2005, within days of Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger’s election as Pope Benedict XVI, the Canberra Times splashed a feel‑good human‑interest piece
across its pages:
“Pope
remembers Steffie – But he’s still just a naughty boy to me, says Cooma
cousin.”
The article
presented Stefanie Brzakovic
(née Blabst, 1927‑2013), an Australian Jehovah’s Witness living in the
small town of Cooma (New South Wales), as the Pope’s “first cousin”. She
claimed that the new pontiff had telephoned her for the first time in half a
century, affectionately called himself “Ratzinger‑Pepi”, and praised
Jehovah’s Witnesses for doing “the work we Catholics should be doing.”
The story
was recycled in 2008 by Il Giornale and a handful of continental newspapers when
Benedict visited Australia, but each retelling quietly downgraded the
relationship from first to second cousin. None offered fresh
evidence; all repeated the same uncorroborated quotes.
Key
point: every
version of the tale rests on a single witness – Mrs Brzakovic herself – with no supporting documentation and no
Vatican confirmation.
2.
Genealogy: the paper trail that isn’t there
Benedict XVI’s maternal ancestry is exceptionally well documented:
|
Generation
|
Ancestral
line
|
Region
|
|
Parents
|
Maria Peintner Rieger (1884 – 1963) ✚ Isidor Rieger (1860 – 1912)
|
Oberaudorf
& Rimsting, Bavaria
|
|
Grandparents
|
Anton Peter Peintner (1818‑1877) ✚ Elisabeth Maria Tauber (1832‑1904) / Johann Nepomuk Reiss (1831‑1908) ✚ Maria Anna Rieger
(1829‑†)
|
Tyrol
(South‑Tyrol) & Swabian Bavaria
|
|
Great‑grandparents
|
Peintner,
Tauber, Reiss, Rieger families back to the late 1700‑s
|
Entirely
German‑speaking Tyrol & Bavarian Swabia
|
After
months of archival work the only Katharina Berger who matches Mrs Brzakovic’s mother (b. 20 Aug 1894) is found not in Pope Benedict’s family but in the baptismal
registers of St Martin, Garmisch;
her parents are Johann Berger and Barbara Bartl of nearby Farchant. Those surnames appear
nowhere in the Ratzinger/Peintner/Rieger/Tauber pedigree, and Isidor Rieger was an only child,
eliminating a whole branch where “cousins” could arise.
Put simply,
the requisite common great‑grandparents do not exist; the “second‑cousin” label
is genealogically impossible.
3.
Geography: the map that doesn’t fit
The
Ratzingers spent Joseph’s childhood in southeastern Bavaria: Tittmoning →
Aschau am Inn → Hufschlag (near Traunstein).
Mrs Brzakovic
remembered “playing together” when the Ratzingers visited her family “50 km away in Weilheim”. Yet Weilheim lies west of Munich; Traunstein lies far to the
east. In the inter‑war years 100 km of rural Bavaria was a day’s journey, not an afternoon jaunt for play‑dates.
No parish, school or civil record places the two families in overlapping
communities.
4.
Linguistics: the wrong nickname
Bavarian
boys named Josef/Joseph are called Sepp or Sepperl.
Pepi is an Austrian‑Viennese diminutive, virtually unheard of in the
rustic dialects of Ratzinger’s Upper‑Bavarian milieu. All contemporary
relatives – including the Pope’s confirmed cousin Erika Kopper – attest he was called “Sepp”. A lone
Australian witness suddenly producing “Ratzinger‑Pepi” is linguistically
jarring.
5. Déjà‑vu
in Watchtower folklore
The alleged
papal compliment – “You Witnesses have small halls that are full; we have
cathedrals that are empty” – is strikingly familiar to anyone who reads
Watchtower literature. Almost identical lines appear in:
- Watchtower 15 June 1993: Pentecostal pastor laments, “We
should be doing the work you do.”
- Awake! 8 Feb 1982 / Watchtower 1 Jan 1997: Minister tells a Witness, “We
have Holy Spirit but you people are doing the work!”
Such
stories function as internal morale boosters, showcasing imagined admiration
from clergy who secretly “know the Truth”. Mrs Brzakovic’s quotation fits the trope too perfectly to ignore.
6. The
burden of proof
- There is no phone log,
tape, or Vatican reference to the 2005 call.
- The Vatican never acknowledged
the lady, invited her to papal events, nor issued a discreet private‑audience
notice (standard practice for real relations).
- After 2005 the story surfaces only
in Witness‑friendly or sensationalist outlets; mainstream German and
Italian Catholic press treated it as hearsay.
In
historiography absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence – but when
multiple lines (documents, geography, language, internal consistency) converge against
a claim, the rational verdict is scepticism.
7. Why
the story matters – and why it fails
Jehovah’s
Witnesses understandably relish anecdotes that place a Pope applauding their
door‑to‑door preaching. Yet theology aside, Pope Benedict XVI spent his career defending
Catholic orthodoxy against exactly the anti‑Trinitarian, anti‑sacramental
positions JWs hold. The notion that he privately endorsed their evangelism just
after ascending to the Chair of Peter stretches credulity to breaking point.
The
Brzakovic tale demands extraordinary belief – a lone octogenarian, no
records, linguistic anomalies, genealogical impossibility – all for a sound‑bite
that dovetails with Watchtower triumphalism.
Critical inquiry shows it to be a house built on sand.
8.
Conclusion
A polemic
is only effective when tethered to fact. The facts here – documentary,
geographic, linguistic, psychological – collectively sink the claim that Pope
Benedict XVI had a Jehovah’s Witness
cousin in Cooma whose missionary zeal he envied. The episode survives because
it flatters a community eager for high‑profile validation, not because it
withstands evidence‑based examination.
Until a
baptismal entry, marriage licence, or Vatican protocol record emerges linking
the Berger/Bartl line to the Rieger/Peintner family, the story remains what it
most plausibly is:
An
unverified anecdote, amplified for propaganda, and wholly unpersuasive to
anyone who values documented truth over wish‑fulfilment.
(1)
Genealogical outline
|
Generation
|
Person
|
Life
dates
|
Key
relationships / notes
|
|
+2
|
Jacob Tauber
|
1788 – 1864
|
Wife:
Maria Niedermayr (1801 – †). Ten
children, incl. Elisabeth Maria Tauber.
|
|
+2
|
Maria Niedermayr
|
1801 – †
|
—
|
|
+1
|
Elisabeth Maria Tauber
|
1832‑12‑09 Natz – 1904‑05‑24 Rimsting
|
Married
Anton Peter Peintner (1818‑1877) on 1858‑02‑09; ten children incl. Maria Tauber‑Peintner (1855‑1930).
|
|
+1
|
Johann Nepomuk Reiss
|
1831‑10‑23 Günzburg – 1908‑11‑10 Welden
|
Partner:
Maria Anna Rieger (1829 – †); one child:
Isidor Rieger (1860‑1912).
|
|
+1
|
Maria Anna Rieger
|
1829‑09‑30 Welden – †
|
Parents:
Andreas Rieger (1792‑1840) & Maria Kreszentia Schönheinz (1792‑1852).
|
|
+2
|
Andreas Rieger
|
1792‑12‑20 Welden – 1840‑10‑14 Welden
|
Parents:
Joseph Rieger (1768‑1800) & Maria Anna Enderle.
|
|
+2
|
Maria Kreszentia Schönheinz
|
1792‑01‑14 Welden – 1852‑10‑04 Welden
|
—
|
|
0
|
Isidor Rieger
|
1860‑03‑22 Welden – 1912‑05‑29 Rimsting
|
Married
Maria Tauber‑Peintner (1855‑1930) on 1885‑07‑13; eight children incl. Maria Peintner Rieger (1884‑1963).
|
|
–1
|
Maria Peintner Rieger
|
1884‑01‑08 Oberaudorf – 1963‑12‑16 Traunstein
|
Married
Joseph Ratzinger Sr. on 1920‑11‑09; children: Maria (1921), Georg (1924), Joseph (Pope Benedict XVI, 1927‑2022).
|
(2)
Summary of the Australian “JW‑cousin” story
|
Fact
|
Source(s)
|
Comment / current assessment
|
|
Canberra Times 2005 article: Stefanie Brzakovic (née Blabst, 1927‑2013) presented as the Pope’s “first cousin” who received a congratulatory call.
|
Canberra Times, Apr 2005
|
Sole
testimony; no corroboration.
|
|
Relationship
later downgraded to “second cousin” in European press (2008).
|
Il Giornale 17 Jul 2008; Austrian wires 2008
|
Repeats
original quotes; no new evidence.
|
|
Pope’s
well‑documented maternal lines (Rieger, Peintner, Tauber, Reiss) contain no
Berger/Bartl/Blabst link; Isidor Rieger was an only child.
|
Bavarian
& Tyrolean parish / civil registers 1780‑1930
|
Second‑cousin
link genealogically impossible.
|
|
Baptism
record: Katharina Berger (20 Aug 1894, Garmisch) – parents Johann Berger & Barbara Bartl.
|
St Martin parish, Garmisch (e‑mail
2025)
|
Berger/Bartl
surnames absent from Pope’s tree.
|
|
Geographic
mismatch: Ratzingers in SE Bavaria (Traunstein area); Brzakovic family
recalled Weilheim (west).
|
Bavarian
gazetteers; Ratzinger memoirs
|
~100 km separation – no shared parish/school.
|
|
Nickname
anomaly: claims of “Ratzinger‑Pepi” vs. documented Bavarian diminutive “Sepp / Sepperl”.
|
Relatives’
testimony; dialect studies
|
Undermines
authenticity of quote.
|
|
Quoted
compliment mirrors stock Watchtower anecdotes (“You Witnesses do the work we
should do”).
|
Watchtower 15 Jun 1993; Awake! 8 Feb 1982
|
Suggests
borrowing from JW folklore.
|
|
Vatican
never confirmed call; no invitation or audience recorded.
|
Vatican
Press Office silence
|
No
institutional trace.
|
|
Conclusion: story remains unverified and
genealogically untenable.
|
—
|
High
probability of apocryphal tale.
|
