The Pope is 80

The faithful from Benedict XVI's native Germany were arriving bearing gifts including bone china and teddy bears dressed in papal garb.

They were to be joined by many more from around the world flocking to pay tribute at a special Mass tomorrow to a pope whose calm manner and ability to quietly go about his business has won him many plaudits in the two years since the death of his predecessor John Paul II.

The Pope will then attend a birthday concert of the music of Mozart and Dvorak at the Vatican on the eve of his actual birthday on Monday.

Dr Joaquin Navarro-Valls, a key member of the late pope's stunningly successful papacy and the head of the Vatican's communications department for 22 years, led the tributes yesterday to Benedict, describing him as a man of "elevated, perhaps even unreachable, composure: discreet, alert and Roman".

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His words formed part of a growing chorus of praise for the Pope, who has surprised almost everyone with his firm but gentle leadership.

Dr Navarro-Valls said Benedict's character stemmed from his Bavarian birth, which gave him "both the shy and sober character typical of Northern people and the genuine vitality and fantasy of the Mediterranean."

He added: "It is his ability to fuse these different qualities that was one of the reasons for the deep trust and friendship which he inspired in John Paul II. Their friendship was deeper than anyone perceived."

Despite the uproar the Pope caused last year with his comments about Islam at Regensberg University, Dr Navarro-Valls said Benedict "has that strange and admirable quality of preferring to be shocked than to shock".

His opinion was echoed by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, who said the Pope had a "robustness and clarity in his teaching" that stemmed from "his noble language, and its efficiency of persuasion." He added: "He has always defended simple faith over the ambiguous and erroneous doctrines from the so-called wise men of this world."

Several Vatican commentators have noted that Benedict, who was known as "God's Rottweiler" when he headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for his fierce protection of traditional doctrine, has even managed to reconcile the Church's Left-wing.

Fr Timothy Radcliffe, the former liberal head of the Dominican Order, and a possible successor to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor as the head of the English and Welsh bishops, said: "I think it is encouraging that Benedict seems to be underplaying the role. He has no desire to be a superstar in the way that John Paul II was."

Fr Radcliffe said the Pope had "found it painful to be cast as a Rottweiler".

However, Benedict does not appear to have entirely lost his teeth. In the past month, anti-Pope graffiti has sprung up in several Italian cities, including the highly Catholic Naples, because of his strong stance against gay marriage. In addition, he has heavily censured a leading liberation theologian before a visit to Brazil.

As well as the Vatican's special Mass in St Peter's Square tomorrow, there will be a Mass celebrated at Benedict's birthplace of Marktl am Inn. The town intends to rename its market square after the Pope, and to open the 18th-century house where he was born on April 16, 1927, as a museum.

Fr Georg Ratzinger, the Pope's older brother, has made the trip from Germany to Rome. He said yesterday that he would give his brother a special hooded mantle, hand-embroidered by Bavarian nuns. "But above all, I wish him good health," he said.

The blog so far is courtesy of the Daily Telegraph reporting.

On Thursday Benedict XVI will have been Pope for two years. I would be quite happy for him to become Universal Father of the whole Christian Church - a positive way by which the ONE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH could be reunited. Each day my prayer book includes the morning offering "Eternal Father, I offer you everything I do this day -my thoughts, works, joys and sufferings. Grant that, enlivened by the Holy Spirit and united to Jesus in the Eucharist, my life this day may be of service to you and to others. And with Mary and the whole Church I pray especially for the Pope's mission intention this month."

Joseph Ratzinger was born in Catholic Bavaria in 1927. As a youngster he witnessed war's 'gates of hell' in Nazi Germany. After the war he became a priest of Munich diocese and later a theologian, university professor and rising academic star. He rose to prominence as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican and was elected Pope at 78 years old. He can be described as a very modest and pious theologian, a humble and thoroughly kind man, a leading thinker of his time, very much in touch with this modern age.

The first words to the faithful after his election as Pope were "I am a simple and humble labourer in the Lord's vineyard. He loves the Church as the sacrament of Christ's love, and God's chosen means of bringing salvation to mankind. - I am happy with that.