Posted on 05/12/2009 6:45:10 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
JERUSALEM – The Vatican defended the pope Tuesday from a growing chorus of Israeli critics who accused the German-born Benedict XVI of failing to express enough remorse for the Holocaust — a controversy that threatened to eclipse a papal pilgrimage aimed at building bridges between faiths.
The pope delivered messages of peace while visiting the holiest Muslim and Jewish sites in Jerusalem — the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall.
But his speech on Monday at Israel's national Holocaust memorial attracted the most attention in Israel, with the parliament speaker accusing Benedict of glossing over the Nazi genocide and survivors lambasting him for failing to apologize for what many in Israel see as Catholic indifference during World War II.
"The pope spoke like a historian, as somebody observing from the sidelines, about things that shouldn't happen. But what can you do? He was part of them," said parliament speaker Reuven Rivlin. "With all due respect to the Holy See, we cannot ignore the baggage he carries with him."
The pope delivered an emotional address at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial Monday, saying the cry of those killed by the regime under which he grew up "still echoes in our hearts." But only moments after he spoke, Yad Vashem's top two officials criticized him for failing to use the words "Nazis" or "murder" in his speech.
Israeli newspapers Tuesday were filled with criticism.
"One would have expected the Vatican's cardinals to prepare a more intelligent text for their boss," columnist Tom Segev said.
Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi defended Benedict, saying the pope had mentioned his German roots previously, specifically when visiting a synagogue in Cologne, Germany, in 2005 and at the Auschwitz death camp the following year.
"He can't mention everything every time he speaks," Lombardi told reporters
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
"Therefore, I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord's work."...also, "I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so," Hitler told Gerhard Engel, one of his generals, in 1941.
I watched the broadcast yesterday from Yad Vashem. It was a beautiful tribute to the Jews who lost their lives in the concentration camps. No mention of the gypsies or homosexuals, nor the Catholics and christians who were also exterminated for the crime of sheltering their Jewish brothers. This is more than racial; it is also religious prejudice.
The Israeli criticism of the Holy Father is absolutely ridiculous. The critics are people who can never be satisfied, with anything.
To many in Israel, like the former hippie generation now running Washington, the world is only about them. They carry on like petulant, self absorbed children and expect everyone to accept their vision of the world. They are free to believe that they are the chosen people but are not free to expect everyone else to believe it.
Hitler was a man of his age. The positivism that was so typical of lapsed Catholics of his time--and today, for that matter. He would never say such stuff in public, just as many of them would not, but it was what he believed and what they believe.
He also tells a story that troubles him to this day. On the occasion of Hitler's birthday the teacher instructed the children (then 7 years old) to put close their eyes, put their heads down on the desk and pray to God for some chocolate (then very scarce in Germany). After a few moments she instructed them to open their eyes and see what God had given them. Of course there was nothing. She then instructed them to repeat the process and pray to the Fuhrer for some Chocolate and when they opened their eyes she had produced enough for each child to have a piece.
For Benedict XVI to have risen above this sort of thing makes him becoming Pope even more impressive.
They did the very same thing in the Soviet Union, only they "prayed" to Stalin.
Let them rant then ignore them, anything else is a waste of time to people who go through life being offended.
As someone who is neither Catholic nor Jewish, I’ve watched the pope’s visit with disinterest, with one exception.
A museum adjacent to the holocaust memorial criticizes the pope during WW2 for not having “done enough”. I for one am unsympathetic to this claim, until there is an equally large portion of the memorial dedicated to the fact that 6 million Jews walked into the showers without putting up a fight. The exception is the Warsaw ghetto, where resistance was fierce, and that fight was studied by Gehlen and German intelligence who in turn used the same tactics as they were forced to retreat into the German heartland in the final phases of the war.
But by and large, the Jews failed to take action to defend themselves.
People who were overwhelmingly passive in the face of a sustained frontal attack have no right to complain about the failure of others to come to their defense. “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I?” I have seen tome after tome blaming God, the Nazi perpetrators, neutral states such as Sweden, American companies such as IBM and Ford, Swiss banks, Latin American countries and FDR.
What I have not seen is any measure of self-reflection and acceptance of responsiblity for failing to be prepared to defend themselves in the face of hundreds of years of anti-semitism in central Europe.
Somebody’s crap stinks. And it ain’t the pope’s.
This could not have come from Mein Kampf because Mein Kampf published in 1925, 16 years before this quote. Also remember that Hitler was a master liar and manipulator. I'm sure he told his generals what ever he thought they needed to hear to follow him blindly.
Lastly, one only need to review this history of the Nazi's campaign to undermine the moral authority of the Church by so-called Immorality Trial, arrests, confiscation, and censure to see what Hitler actually thought of the Church. When compelled to act upon his faith Hitler created the Protestant Reich Church (Reichskirche) in 1933 by merging 28 regional churches into one church. He appointed Ludwig Müller, a non-Catholic as Reichsbishop.
We could do this all day ;-)
There were over 2400 Catholic priests in Dachau.
There were over 800 Catholic priests murdered in Poland alone.
There is no doubting that Hitler born and raised Catholic, and received the sacraments of the Church.
There is also no doubt that somewhere along the line he lost his way. In a big way.
The man was no Christian, of any flavor. But his “fatherland” was filled with Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, and he and his minions made use of propaganda whenever and wherever they could for their own gain.
Here’s a Hitler Youth marching song:
“We follow not Christ, but Horst Wessel,
Away with incense and Holy Water,
The Church can go hang for all we care,
The Swastika brings salvation on Earth.”
(Horst Wessel was an early Nazi party Sturmabteilung street-fighter murdered by communists and turned into a martyr by propaganda chief Josef Goebbels.)
To: LibLieSlayer
A few words from the Pope would get WORLD coverage
One other point. Consider this: during the Pope's visit to Israel, going on now, I can almost guarantee that he is going to make a statement that will p1ss of Israel (he will, if nothing else, stand up for the human rights for Palestinian Christians...who are mostly Catholic). Some papers that are in the Israeli press will seize on this and say that the Pope is an anti-Semite. FReepers will call him a Jew killer, a Nazi, the anti-Christ, etc. Somebody on this board will bring up Pio XII (the so-called "Hitler's Pope"). Other FReepers will say he's not so bad. There will be acrimony.
This is predictable. It always happens. And it always blows over and, at least with this Pope, it always seems to work out that he was somehow right. It happened with the Pope's trip to Turkey. It happened after his Regensburg address. It happened after his lifting of the excommunication of the Lefebreite bishops. It will happen, no matter what happens at Notre Dame this coming weekend. And it will happen no matter what he does in Israel this week.
(snip)
165 posted on Monday, May 11, 2009 9:19:05 AM by markomalley (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus)
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As I was saying.
How long has Alex Murphy been engaged in full-time anti-Catholic activities?
Just wondering . . . his contributions to Free Republic are legendary in that regard and are finally being discussed on other blogs.
Links, if you please.
I do not please.
Actually, I think Alex Murphy is fascinated by the Church and it wouldn’t surprise me if someday he becomes a Catholic. We must pray for him.
As a tot, she and all such children in the nation received little gifts "from the Fuehrer" during each year he had power. To this day, many if not most of these children, now aged, keep a soft spot in their heart for their benefactor.
Bestowing benefits of any kind, and targeting propaganda especially designed for children, are the marks of dictators. It's happening right now in this country, the same as in Germany in the thirties.
Why does Hitlery Clinton have as her mantra, "it's for the children" and "it takes a village (commune") to raise a child". When her political gigs are over, Hillary will be appointed as president of a major university, mark my words. It's where the children are.
Leftists don't care what we adult Americans think so much as what our children think......and how their thinking can be "guided". Adults are generally set in their minds and ideologies. This is why kids with minds full of mush are prime targets in school and all the other organizations the Left has infiltrated or taken over.
I'm Lutheran and I'm proud to say I love and admire Pope Benedict. He lived through the Hitlerian regime and he's also a former teacher.
To be blunt, he knows the ropes. This makes me feel better. Compared to the brilliant Pope, our country's President is a weak, devious, amoral street hustler all dressed up in a Brooks Brothers suit.
Leni
Do not make this thread “about” individual Freepers. That is also a form of “making it personal.”
Thank you for these...bookmarking for future use. I read Trevor-Roper years ago and was aware of these quotes, but could not find an online text.
The truth: He didn't practice his faith at all after his mid-teens.
and rambled somewhat about dallying in paganism his statements many times confirmed his Catholicism click here for proof!
Which statements?
"I am a pure heathen" ??
"I must remain a Catholic because only a Catholic can destroy Catholicism" ??
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