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Church Buys Pope's Childhood Home

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The Roman Catholic Church said Friday it has taken possession of the house where Pope Benedict XVI was born and will open it to the public.

A church foundation agreed in December to buy the house in the Bavarian village of Marktl am Inn for an undisclosed sum and said it would turn it into a museum on his life.

The dioceses of Munich and Passau said Friday that the foundation was now the owner of the house. No date has been set for the opening of the house to the public.

Built in 1745 as a customs house, the building became a police station before Joseph Ratzinger was born there on April 16, 1927. His father was the local police commander and lived in the building.

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  Benedict, who was elected pope last April, lived in the house for two years before his family moved.

The church beat out scores of bidders, including a Saudi sheik, who offered to buy the house from the former owner - a German woman who complained that hordes of tourists were making her life unbearable.

© 2006 Associated Press.

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