Monday, April 25, 2005
Setting the record straight on the new Pope
Just setting the record straight on the new Pope's involvement with the Hitler Youth. His family were not pro-Hitler, they were not pro-Nazi. Benedict's brother Georg has found himself in an uneviable position in the past few days--that of having to defend his brother against nasty charges of pro-Nazism. The Chicago Tribune has a lengthy article on this subject, but I'll just post a small bit here:
Joseph Ratzinger, 78, has written about his childhood during the rise of Adolf Hitler. He always acknowledged that in 1941, when the Nazis demanded membership, he joined a Hitler Youth group. Georg Ratzinger explained that he and Joseph, who realized early on that they wanted "a life at the altar," were raised in a home where Hitler was despised, in the pine-covered hills of Bavaria.
"My parents viewed him intensely as an enemy," Ratzinger said. "From the beginning, they saw him as an enemy. They thought he was anti-Catholic and anti-Christian, anti-religion." Their father was a police officer whose dislike of the policies of National Socialism spurred the family to move from village to village in southeast Germany. The family eventually settled in Traunstein, a Catholic stronghold near Munich.
The article also states that Joseph Ratzinger never fired a shot during the War, and continues:
Georg Ratzinger has allowed himself a few judgments this past news-filled week. "Anybody who writes such a thing [that Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, was a willing particpant in Hitler's regime] must need something to write," Ratzinger said, sighing about the most sensational headlines. "And anyone who writes that . . . doesn't understand the times as they were."
Read the entire article here: Yahoo! News - Pope's family saw Hitler as enemy
Joseph Ratzinger, 78, has written about his childhood during the rise of Adolf Hitler. He always acknowledged that in 1941, when the Nazis demanded membership, he joined a Hitler Youth group. Georg Ratzinger explained that he and Joseph, who realized early on that they wanted "a life at the altar," were raised in a home where Hitler was despised, in the pine-covered hills of Bavaria.
"My parents viewed him intensely as an enemy," Ratzinger said. "From the beginning, they saw him as an enemy. They thought he was anti-Catholic and anti-Christian, anti-religion." Their father was a police officer whose dislike of the policies of National Socialism spurred the family to move from village to village in southeast Germany. The family eventually settled in Traunstein, a Catholic stronghold near Munich.
The article also states that Joseph Ratzinger never fired a shot during the War, and continues:
Georg Ratzinger has allowed himself a few judgments this past news-filled week. "Anybody who writes such a thing [that Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, was a willing particpant in Hitler's regime] must need something to write," Ratzinger said, sighing about the most sensational headlines. "And anyone who writes that . . . doesn't understand the times as they were."
Read the entire article here: Yahoo! News - Pope's family saw Hitler as enemy
