This is the oldest church choir in the world. A children's choir that has sung on every Sunday at the Regensburg Cathedral for more than 1,000 years.
In Rome, they've performed in one of the most sacred and exciting places on earth: The Sistine Chapel, the same place where conclaves are held to elect the popes.
This time their performance was even more special, a tribute to the Pope's only brother Georg Ratzinger, who turned 85. He has been director of the Regensburger Domspatzen, the choir of the Regensburg Cathedral, for 40 years.
BENEDICT XVI Your 85 years have not always been easy. When you were born, inflation was coming to an end, and many people, including our own parents, had lost all their savings. But we've always seen how the goodness of God has called you and guided you. This is the second performance at the Vatican for this choir. This time, they performed Mozart's Great Mass in C minor.
The Pope recalled that both he and his brother heard it for the first time in Salzburg, Austria back in 1941. And in hearing it, they somehow saw the magnificence and beauty of God.
He also said that it was a hymn of thanksgiving, but also expressed an intense internal struggle, the search for forgiveness and God's mercy: the history of all men.
