"If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first."
John 15:18
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No matter what he does, it will never be enough.
Yesterday he was being criticized for be present at an event where an anti-Israel speech was given by an uninvited speaker (who turned out to be a radical Muslim jurist who wants to impose sharia) and shaking hands when the speaker walked over to him before departing the stage. Not mentioned until today was the fact that the speech was given entirely in Arabic, and was NOT TRANSLATED because the speaker was not on the list of official speakers. The Pope, btw, does not speak Arabic.
As soon as he was informed of the contents of the speech by Arabic speaking clergy, he left.
So now we have him being criticized for omitting words that somehow somebody thinks should have been there and probably attempted to relay to him by ESP, and for sitting through a speech of which he understood not a word; what’s next?
Rivlin said that "with all due respect to the Holy See, we cannot ignore the burden he bears, as a young German who joined the Hitler Youth and as a person who joined Hitler's army, which was an instrument in the extermination".
Pope Benedict, born Joseph Ratzinger, joined the Hitler Youth when enrolment was compulsory, and was drafted into the German forces, deserting towards the end of the conflict.
And this, from Reuters India:
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The official Vatican spokesman said on Tuesday that German-born Pope Benedict was never a member of the Hitler Youth, contradicting quotes from the pope himself that have been aired again during his visit to Israel.
Rev. Federico Lombardi said the pope, whose speech at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on Monday was criticized in Israel as too abstract, was a member of anti-aircraft units that many youths were drafted into in the last two years of World War Two.
But noting many media reports during his Middle East tour had mentioned membership in the Nazi Party's youth wing, Lombardi told reporters in Jerusalem: "The pope was never in the Hitler Youth, never, never, never."
In "Salt of the Earth," a 1996 book of autobiographical and religious reflections based on interviews with German journalist Peter Seewald, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said, however, that he was automatically enrolled into the Hitler Youth.
Maybe they should have written his speech for him.
What’s really going on here is the media’s hateful distortion that Popes have been Nazis, historical fact be damned. I know many Jews who simply believe that Pope Pius was a nazi, helped the nazis kill Jews, etc.
It’s very sad and this is a bigotry pure and simple. Pope Pius saved Jews, Catholics were also persecuted in the holocaust, Hitler was anti-Catholic and followed some primitive paganistic religion.
This Pope’s family was in the resistance to Hitler. He was forced into service as a boy at the end of the war, escaping to return to his family.
But let’s all pretend the Pope is a bad guy.
"If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first."
John 15:18
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Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Most of us here are very pro-Israel however the segment of Israeli society that continues to slice open the scars of the Holocaust are rather annoying! Grant it was a horrible past event but Hitler and henchman are long dead and gone. Pope Benedict is an honorable man and definitely not anti-semitic. Save the rancor for Ahmedinejad and Chavez types-— proven avid and dangerous anti-semites.
This is ridiculous. Pope Benedict gave a moving speech that vowed to do whatever is necessary to never allow another holocaust. There is no reason for the Pope or the Church to apologize, and there is no reason to dwell on the past. The anti-Catholic Israelis are just looking for an excuse to make a stink.
The Jews will never forgive him for being German. His great sin is racial.
The Israeli criticism of the Holy Father is absolutely ridiculous. The critics are people who can never be satisfied, with anything.
Let them rant then ignore them, anything else is a waste of time to people who go through life being offended.
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.
John 15:19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I HAVE CHOSEN you out of the world, the world hates you.
The flock that Our Lord sent you to shepherd loves you Papa!
Unsatisfiable.
The Pope has endorsed a philistinian state. That’s all I need to know. He can go back to the Vatican now.