Unlike some Germans, new pope chose not to resist the Nazi party.

[tedzbear]

He (Ratzinger) has since said that although he was opposed to the Nazi regime, any open resistance would have been futile — comments echoed this weekend by his elder brother Georg, a retired priest ordained along with the cardinal in 1951.

“Resistance was truly impossible,” Georg Ratzinger said. “Before we were conscripted, one of our teachers said we should fight and become heroic Nazis and another told us not to worry as only one soldier in a thousand was killed. But neither of us ever used a rifle against the enemy.”

Some locals in Traunstein, like Elizabeth Lohner, 84, whose brother-in-law was sent to Dachau as a conscientious objector, dismiss such suggestions. “It was possible to resist, and those people set an example for others,” she said. “The Ratzingers were young and had made a different choice.”

---Justin Sparks, Munich, John Follain and Christopher Morgan, Rome TIMES ONLINE


Ms. Lohner makes an interesting point: some Germans resisted and died for it, and others like the new pope survived by joining the dark side. I can't say which choice I would have made under his circumstances, but the fact that Ratzinger once chose the dark side is rather disappointing for someone who supposedly represents God on earth.

[RPM]

1. I hope this causes the jewish faith to condemn and ignore the RCC

this is offensive as all hell.

One more notch down for the Roman Catholic Church.

[in_cog_ni_to]

12. This truly is a slap in the face of the Jewish community.

I'm appalled. I wonder what's going through the minds of Wolfowitz, Perle and their ilk right now?

[ananda]

2. The entire church has..

.. officially joined the dark side.

Sue

[Bridget Burke]

3. What a cowardly 14-year-old....

I'm sure you risked death at that age.

His Jugend experience matters less than his work in the Church. Which isn't that good.

[tedzbear]

5. Good point.

That's why I said I might have well done the same thing. Still, it gives one pause that later when he was 17 he willingly became a Nazi soldier instead of choosing to become part of the resistance like many 17 year olds did.

Like this guy is the pope. His life is supposed to set an example, not lower the bar.

[TheFarseer]

4. Comparing what Pope Rat did as a boy

and what John Paul II did as a young man is not fair.

[tedzbear]

6. Not fair?

Why not? That's like ignoring the elephant in the living room.

[TheFarseer]

17. Hmmmmmmmm

I thought this guy was significantly younger than JPII but only 6 years. Still you are a very different person from age 14 to 20. I think I would have just done what my parents said to at that age, living in that time.

[tedzbear]

19. Ratzinger says his father was against the Nazis...

...but evidently he prefered his sons joining them than resisting like many families did.

[NYC2099]

7. Didn't realize there were so many ignorant people....

That hate the catholic church & any association therein on this site.

Linking a 14 year old to being a nazi is like linking any american thinking FDR was a good president as a racist since FDR put over 100,000 AMERICAN japanese into US concentration camps out west simply because of their skin color.

People need to look past their hatred against the church...

[Bridget Burke]

11. They learned to hate Catholicism as children...

And never learned better.

They are a loud minority. But still a minority.

[woo me with science]

14. it's pretty sad nt

[woo me with science]

8. give me a break nt

[FreedomAngel82]

10. Dems look?

The republicans have the rumor out there we're all "hethens." How does this effect us? :shrug:

[Larkspur]

9. Catholic Austrian Franz Jaegerstatter had the courage to refuse to serve

the Nazis. Father Thomas Merton compared his courage to that of Sir Thomas More's. Ratzinger is a moral coward.

In the parish church of St Radegund,Upper Austria Franz Jägerstätter was baptised; here he married and here his children were christened. Here too, from 1941 to 1943 he served as sacristan.
The jung farmer and family man became one of the outstanding figures of Christian resistance to National Socialism. He refused not only any support for the Nazi party (NSDAP), but also declined to fight in the German army in the war started by Germany. The consequences of his decision were clear to him and his family from the start; everyone hoped that the war would end before he was called up.

In the two years between his first experiences in the German army and his second call-up, he looked for a way out of the conflict of conscience between his family responsibility and his knowledge that supporting this war would involve great personal guilt. He found guidance and help in the Bible and in the example of figures such as Thomas More and Nicholas of Flüe (1st Footnote : Nicholas of Flüe, Brother Klaus 1417-1487. Swiss hermit and mystic. he left his wife Dorothea, and his ten children and lived as a hermit for 20 years. In 1481 Brother Klaus prevented a Swiss civil war. ).
In his wife, Franciska, he had an understanding companion; their strong mutual relationship and love were a crucial human support in the crises before and during his imprisonment.
<More... http://www.c3.hu/~bocs/jager-a.htm >

[LdyGuique]

13. He was born a few years before Hitler took power and all of

his memories and lifelong training would have been to accept the status quo -- reinforced by his parents, by his classmates, by his teachers, by his belonging to the Hitler Youth. The indoctrination was deep and wide. Few people raised in that type of system escape it mentally, let alone physically. There were no alternative ideas -- Germany didn't have a free press and didn't have altrnative groups to belong to -- it was nothing like today.

How many break from their indoctrination here in the US where there are substantial amounts of differing POVs?

[Larkspur]

16. Rubbish. Protestant Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer resisted the Nazis

http://www.ushmm.org/bonhoeffer/b1.htm

The ultimate question for a responsible man to ask is not how he is to extricate himself heroically from the affair, but how the coming generation shall continue to live."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, After Ten Years (December 1942)

In the years since his death, the Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer has become widely known as one of the few Christian martyrs in a history otherwise stained by Christian complicity with Nazism. Executed in the Flossenbürg concentration camp on April 9, 1945 for his role in the resistance against Hitler, Bonhoeffer's letters and theological works still influence Christians throughout the world.
<SNIP>

[SouthernDem2004]

21. Pope: 14 years old Bonhoeffer: 39 years old. You see no difference???

[Larkspur]

24. See my post #18

There were many who resisted the Nazis and refused to serve. Ratzinger deserves no respect. When he was old enough to make up his own mind, he joined the Nazis.

[WilliamPitt]

15. "The Ratzingers were young"

I don't suppose that cuts any ice with anyone. Too bad.

[Larkspur]

18. And Franz Jägerstätter was married with children when he refused to

serve the Nazis and the German army. He could have cited family responsiblities as an excuse, but he did not. He was hanged because he equated serving in the German military to supporting the evil of Nazism. Ratzinger chose to be a sheep following the herd to damnation.

[tedzbear]

23. So were many who chose to resist.

Their father was supposedly anti-Nazi yet he preferred having his sons join the Hitler Youth and the army than risk the consequences of actually resisting. Yes, it's called survival, but many German youths followed their parents into concentration camps because they refused to join the dark side and lose their souls. They are the ones who should be revered, not this guy.

[GideonStargrave]

20. Not only was he in the Hitler Youth...

...but he also authored a document detailing how to cover up sex abuse scandals.

They also call for the victim to take an oath of secrecy at the time of making a complaint to Church officials. It states that the instructions are to ‘be diligently stored in the secret archives of the Curia as strictly confidential. Nor is it to be published nor added to with any commentaries.’

<…> Bishops are instructed to pursue these cases ‘in the most secretive way… restrained by a perpetual silence… and everyone… is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office… under the penalty of excommunication’.

Got it from a site with lots of information on why Ratzinger is just plain unplesant.
http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2005/04/09/cardinal-ratzinger-next-pope-nazi/

[BuyingThyme]

25. Oh, come on.

Assisting murderers doesn't make one an accessory to murder....Oh, wait...Yes it does.

Another pedophile pope. And this one's a less-than-enthusiastic Nazi.

Rejoice!

[yvr girl]

22. He was 12 when the war started

Your expectations of a twelve year old are pretty high