Apr 23 2005
Is Our New Pope a former Nazi???
Ever since our new Pope Benedict XVI was elected (& even some time before, when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger) I’ve been hearing all sorts of silly statements been made about him.
The worst of all the rubbish would be however the implication that he was a Nazi in his youth.
I’d like to highlight some key points to show Pope Benedict’s true colors:
(01) His father, also called Joseph (a rural Bavarian police officer), was an anti-Nazi whose attempts to rein in Hitler’s Brown Shirts forced the family to move home several times. Thus we see from the time Ratzinger was six (when Hitler came into power) he was surrounded by very strong anti-Nazi influences from his own family.
(02) He did join the Hitler Youth aged 14 (which is probably the root of all the rumours) but only after membership was made compulsory in 1941 (the alternative was to be possibly killed as a traitor). Still, he managed to drop out by insisting that it was incompatible with his life in a pre-seminary.
(03) He was sent to Hungary, where he set up tank traps and saw Jews being herded to death camps following which He deserted in April 1944 and spent a few weeks in a prisoner of war camp.
From the above it is clear that Pope Benedict XVI was completely Anti-Nazi, in his thoughts & actions.
(Pope Benedict XVI as a young boy)
If you STILL AREN’T CONVINCED by what I’ve written, read what the The Anti-Defamation League had to say about the Pope:
We welcome the new Papacy of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. From the Jewish perspective, the fact that he comes from Europe is important, because he brings with him an understanding and memory of the painful history of Europe and of the 20th Century experience of European Jewry.
Having lived through World War II, Cardinal Ratzinger has great sensitivity to Jewish history and the Holocaust. He has shown this sensitivity countless times, in meetings with Jewish leadership and in important statements condemning anti-Semitism and expressing profound sorrow for the Holocaust. We remember with great appreciation his Christmas reflections on December 29, 2000, when he memorably expressed remorse for the anti-Jewish attitudes that persisted through history, leading to “deplorable acts of violence” and the Holocaust. Cardinal Ratzinger said: “Even if the most recent, loathsome experience of the Shoah (Holocaust) was perpetrated in the name of an anti-Christian ideology, which tried to strike the Christian faith at its Abrahamic roots in the people of Israel, it cannot be denied that a certain insufficient resistance to this atrocity on the part of Christians can be explained by an inherited anti-Judaism present in the hearts of not a few Christians.”
Though as a teenager he was a member of the Hitler Youth, all his life Cardinal Ratzinger has atoned for the fact. In our years of working on improving Catholic-Jewish ties, ADL has had opportunities to work with Cardinal Ratzinger. We look forward to continuing that relationship.
Like our last Pope, John Paul II, who took part in anti-Nazi theatre performances in his native Poland & was also hugely appreciated for what he did for and with the Jewish people, I am sure that Pope Benedict XVI will by God’s Grace lead the Church & the world in love & unity towards God.
I end with this verse Hebrews 13:16-18 “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
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Yes our new Pope joined da Hitler Youth only after membership was made compulsory, young Ratzinger was only 14 at that time…. to leave his army unit could have cost Ratzinger his life
“Published in English as “Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977.”
He recorded his terror when he was stopped by other soldiers.
“Thank God they were ones who had had enough of war and did not want to become murderers,” he wrote in his book, “Aus meinem Leben,”
“They had to find a reason to let me go. I had my arm in a sling because of an injury.”
“Comrade, you are wounded,” they told him. “Go on.” Soon he was home with his father, Josef, and his mother, Maria.
Dear Melody,
You have taken quite a lot of trouble to list out the various details below in defense of our new pope. Actually, it is quite evident that most of the negative hype is just the reaction of the media with some promptings from the liberals who are already beginning to feel uncomfortable as they well know what is in store for them.
Anyone who has read Ratzinger’s past knows that he is far from being a Nazi. Most of it therefore can be just ignored. I am quite sure that well informed Catholics and renewed Christians have gladly hailed the election of Benedict and are waiting expectantly for the first roars to come forth fromt the Vatican.
Praise the Lord! For He is totally in control of everything and works in perfect timing in all situtaions.
By the way, you are doing a good job - keep it up!
Regards,
Ian
Thx for the encouragement.
AMEN to that!
Of all the Cardinals to choose from why has the Vatican decided on a former-Nazi??!!
Despite all of your above arguments, that I read very thoughtfully, our Pope made the choice to become a Nazi soldier - and decided not to resist. Josef Ratzinger did not resist the Nazi movement like members of Jehova’s Witness in his hometown, or conscientious objectors in his hometown - it was possible to resist (resistors were punished or sent to camps but for a true man of faith that should not have been too much to ask, just as Jesus was persecuted). The Nazi movement was in direct conflict with Catholicism as we all know.
How can a man who couldn’t stand up to the Nazis be called the voice of God on Earth?
I am so dissappointed by the Church’s decision and I am questioning my allegiance now to the Catholic Church, at least the papacy.
-Sean
I’m glad you read all my arguments thoughtfully - yet if you read them once again, the Pope did not make the “choice” to joine the Hitler Youth. It was a compulsary thing which was forced upon him and which he later LEFT!!! Not to mention the fact that he DESERTED from Hungary and was sent to a PRISONER OF WAR camp!!
You say “resistors were punished or sent to camps but for a true man of faith that should not have been too much to ask, just as Jesus was persecuted” —– and yet that’s exactly what he ended up at = a POW camp.
Here’s what I believe, the Church made the right decision by the aid of the Holy Spirit. More than any connections (or not) with the Nazis, our Pope showed his true colors continually when he was a Cardinal by standing steadfast to the truth & not bending with the remover to remove despite the cost to his personal reputation.
And that’s the Pope we have… one who DID stand up to the Nazis and one who has and is standing up to all the other “accepted” evils in the world of today.
Homophobic Pope Benedict, speaking out on a topic that Italy’s incoming centre-left government will likely have to confront, on Thursday condemned gay marriage and legal recognition of unwed couples…
I don’t accept holy books of other faiths & so I don’t bother about what they write in it & I don’t let what their preachers say bother me (i.e. I have no issues with eating meat though many other religions do)
Be blessed
Melody, I am so glad you write good stuff. You know he was even referred to as Nazinger?
Well I joked about it too but the depth of the word only hit me after I read what you wrote!
I am proud of you as a fellow catholic!
what opinions do you maintain about the Pope’s stand against homosexuality?