Precisely what FR has been warning our own nation about...
Posted on 04/19/2005 9:52:18 AM PDT by Alouette
London's Sunday Times would have us believe that one of the leading contenders for the papacy is a closet Nazi. In if-only-they-knew tones, the newspaper informs readers that German-born Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was a member of the Hitler Youth during World War II and suggests that, because of this, the "panzer cardinal" would be quite a contrast to his predecessor, John Paul II.
The article also classifies Ratzinger as a "theological anti-Semite" for believing in Jesus so strongly that – gasp! – he thinks that everyone, even Jews, should accept him as the messiah.
To all this we should say, "This is news?!" As the Sunday Times article admits, Ratzinger's membership in the Hitler Youth was not voluntary but compulsory; also admitted are the facts that the cardinal – only a teenager during the period in question – was the son of an anti-Nazi policeman, that he was given a dispensation from Hitler Youth activities because of his religious studies, and that he deserted the German army.
Ratzinger has several times gone on record on his supposedly "problematic" past. In the 1997 book Salt of the Earth, Ratzinger is asked whether he was ever in the Hitler Youth.
"At first we weren't," he says, speaking of himself and his older brother, "but when the compulsory Hitler Youth was introduced in 1941, my brother was obliged to join. I was still too young, but later as a seminarian, I was registered in the Hitler Youth. As soon as I was out of the seminary, I never went back. And that was difficult because the tuition reduction, which I really needed, was tied to proof of attendance at the Hitler Youth.
"Thank goodness there was a very understanding mathematics professor. He himself was a Nazi, but an honest man, and said to me, 'Just go once to get the document so we have it...' When he saw that I simply didn't want to, he said, 'I understand, I'll take care of it' and so I was able to stay free of it."
Ratzinger says this again in his own memoirs, printed in 1998. In his 2002 biography of the cardinal, John Allen, Jr. of the National Catholic Reporter wrote in detail about those events.
The only significant complaint that the Times makes against Ratzinger's wartime conduct is that he resisted quietly and passively, rather than having done something drastic enough to earn him a trip to a concentration camp. Of course, whenever it is said that a German failed the exceptional-resistance-to-the-Nazis test, it would behoove us all to recognize that too many Jews failed it, as well.
If he were truly a Nazi sympathizer, then it would undoubtedly have become evident during the past 60 years. Yet throughout his service in the church, Ratzinger has distinguished himself in the field of Jewish-Catholic relations.
As prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger played an instrumental role in the Vatican's revolutionary reconciliation with the Jews under John Paul II. He personally prepared Memory and Reconciliation, the 2000 document outlining the church's historical "errors" in its treatment of Jews. And as president of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, Ratzinger oversaw the preparation of The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible, a milestone theological explanation for the Jews' rejection of Jesus.
If that's theological anti-Semitism, then we should only be so lucky to "suffer" more of the same.
As for the Hitler Youth issue, not even Yad Vashem has considered it worthy of further investigation. Why should we?
Too bad that as president of the Pontifical Biblical Commission he couldn't engage in an "ecumenical" defense of Biblical inerrancy and the Divine authoriship of the Torah. But I've commented so many times on this ironic situation ("philosemitism" going hand in hand with liberal Biblical theories) that I don't know what more to say on the subject.
As for hitting Ratzinger over the head with belonging to a compulsory government organization for young people, isn't that (compulsory national service) something the liberals have been advocating for decades?
PS: I will rejoice at "Catholic-Jewish relations" when the Vatican admits that G-d wrote the Torah.
Tomorrow the London Times will write about America's slave state President.
You missed the original thread. I see no reason it shouldn't be refuted.Papal hopeful is a former Hitler Youth
The new Pope devoutly believes that only Christians go to Heavan. He believes its his duty to remind people. The rabbis are having a lot of trouble with that already.
This matter can't be ignored. And while it's ugly, he appears to have been very reluctant to support the Nazis.
FReegards....
Liberal Leftist press strikes again--they just can't stomach someone with strong moral convictions leading the oldest and the largest institution on earth--Catholic Church. They would like to see "Progressive" (read radical revolutionary) instead of solid moral Conservative at the helm of every institution, including a religious one. We've already seen how out-of-control leftist liberalism can jeopardize the authority of the church. Episcopal Church in America is a perfect example of what happens when timeless truth is discarded in favor of popular sensibilities of the time.
Being drafted against his will to Hitler Youth and then to Wermaht (which he deserted in 1944), does not make Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) a Nazi. Anyone who is more or less familiar with the way totalitarian regimes work, should not blame him. As long as he did nothing terribly wrong, I have absolutely no problem with it.
I wish the New Pope all the best. I hope he will continue John Paul II legacy of reaching out to the world while standing firm on the ground of timeless values of human dignity and responsibility before each other and before God--transcendent and invisible. I hope for more steps toward Orthodox-Catholic reconcilliation and more aggressive stance against moral relativism, leftism, sexual promiscuity, "progressivism", Anti-Semitism and other destructive ideologies that endanger the moral integrity and the very survival of the Western Civilization.
well good to hear that.....though not a practicing catholic any more, I am glad to see a conservative figure in the Vatican.
I worked for a East German over 25 years ago in Colorado. He readily admitted being in the Hitler Youth, but added that there was really no choice in the matter. To decline brought undo attention to oneself and one's family from the Nazis.
I find it amazing that compulsory membership in the Hitler youth while one was 14 or 15 is fodder for the liberals, yet a man who was an adult Klan leader gets a pass as a Senate leader.
Here is a link to the text of his homily at JPII's funeral.
Got any good links to the meltdown?
My sister is already calling him a "hitler pope" 'cuz she's listening to the media. I just sent her this so she can read for herself.
Yeah, unfortunately, in some ways, she's one of the sheeple
"On Monday, Ratzinger, who was the powerful dean of the College of Cardinals, used his homily at the Mass dedicated to electing the next pope to warn the faithful about tendencies that he considered dangers to the faith: sects, ideologies like Marxism, liberalism, atheism, agnosticism and relativism - the ideology that there are no absolute truths."
From the Drudge Report. Who can argue with this??
What Order was Ratzinger ordained in???
In the next several weeks there will be numerous polls run showing that "Americans do not agree" and that "Americans do not support". Take it from this imperfect Catholic; we believe and we support.
Yep... you're right. The polling is inevitable.
How does he define Christians? Catholics only?
God bless Pope Benedict XVI!
Precisely what FR has been warning our own nation about...
It certainly added to the feeling of watching history in the making.
Which rabbis are you specifically referring to?
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