Posted on 04/18/2005 6:51:26 AM PDT by TXBSAFH
The Sunday Times - World
April 17, 2005
Papal hopeful is a former Hitler Youth Justin Sparks, Munich, John Follain and Christopher Morgan, Rome
THE wartime past of a leading German contender to succeed John Paul II may return to haunt him as cardinals begin voting in the Sistine Chapel tomorrow to choose a new leader for 1 billion Catholics. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, whose strong defence of Catholic orthodoxy has earned him a variety of sobriquets including the enforcer, the panzer cardinal and Gods rottweiler is expected to poll around 40 votes in the first ballot as conservatives rally behind him.
Although far short of the requisite two-thirds majority of the 115 votes, this would almost certainly give Ratzinger, 78 yesterday, an early lead in the voting. Liberals have yet to settle on a rival candidate who could come close to his tally.
Unknown to many members of the church, however, Ratzingers past includes brief membership of the Hitler Youth movement and wartime service with a German army anti- aircraft unit.
Although there is no suggestion that he was involved in any atrocities, his service may be contrasted by opponents with the attitude of John Paul II, who took part in anti-Nazi theatre performances in his native Poland and in 1986 became the first pope to visit Romes synagogue.
John Paul was hugely appreciated for what he did for and with the Jewish people, said Lord Janner, head of the Holocaust Education Trust, who is due to attend ceremonies today to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
If they were to appoint someone who was on the other side in the war, he would start at a disadvantage, although it wouldnt mean in the long run he wouldnt be equally understanding of the concerns of the Jewish world.
The son of a rural Bavarian police officer, Ratzinger was six when Hitler came to power in 1933. His father, also called Joseph, was an anti-Nazi whose attempts to rein in Hitlers Brown Shirts forced the family to move home several times.
In 1937 Ratzingers father retired and the family moved to Traunstein, a staunchly Catholic town in Bavaria close to the Führers mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden. He joined the Hitler Youth aged 14, shortly after membership was made compulsory in 1941.
He quickly won a dispensation on account of his training at a seminary. Ratzinger was only briefly a member of the Hitler Youth and not an enthusiastic one, concluded John Allen, his biographer.
Two years later Ratzinger was enrolled in an anti-aircraft unit that protected a BMW factory making aircraft engines. The workforce included slaves from Dachau concentration camp.
Ratzinger has insisted he never took part in combat or fired a shot adding that his gun was not even loaded because of a badly infected finger. He was sent to Hungary, where he set up tank traps and saw Jews being herded to death camps. He deserted in April 1944 and spent a few weeks in a prisoner of war camp.
He 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.
In 1937 another family a few hundred yards away in Traunstein hid Hans Braxenthaler, a local resistance fighter. SS troops repeatedly searched homes in the area looking for the fugitive and his fellow conspirators. When he was betrayed and the Nazis came for him, Braxenthaler shot himself because he knew he couldnt escape, said Frieda Meyer, 82, Ratzingers neighbour and childhood friend. Even though they had tortured him in Dachau concentration camp he refused to give up his resistance efforts.
Despite question marks over Ratzingers wartime conduct, the main obstacle to his prospects in the conclave the assembly of cardinals to elect the new pope is the conservative stance he has adopted as guardian of Catholic orthodoxy since John Paul named him to head the congregation for the doctrine of the faith in 1981.
His condemnations are legion of women priests, married priests, dissident theologians and homosexuals, whom he has declared to be suffering from an objective disorder.
He upset many Jews with a statement in 1987 that Jewish history and scripture reach fulfilment only in Christ a position denounced by critics as theological anti-semitism. He made more enemies among other religions in 2000, when he signed a document, Dominus Jesus, in which he argued: Only in the Catholic church is there eternal salvation.
Some of his staunchest critics are in Germany. A recent poll in Der Spiegel, the news magazine, showed opponents of a Ratzinger papacy outnumbered supporters by 36% to 29%.
As one western cardinal who was in two minds about him put it: He would probably be a great pope, but I have no idea how I would explain his election back home.
One liberal theologian,when asked what he thought of a Ratzinger papacy, was more direct: It fills me with horror.
Yeah???? YOU try living life with 2 fingers.
Saw it last night.
I'd recommend it to anyone.
Starkly accurate depiction.
Before they made Kurt Waldheim UN Secretary General, where was the media then? Methinks they didn't put 1/10th of the effort into investigating Waldheim's real Nazi past as they have trying to smear Ratzinger.
LOL! You are probably right!
No problem as long as I can (1) point and (2) express my opinion.
(LIVE THREAD) The Papal Conclave, Interregnum, Cardinals, Conclave Facts, Prayer and other links
It should be pointed out, in case anyone is in doubt, that the penalty for desertion was death. It took courage to do that.
What are you talking about? It was no big deal he was a Hilter Youth...he was 16. So what!
One is now a Republican, the other hates politicians. I'd say they should give this guy a break, besides, the liberals Pope would be a National Socialist.
Of course homosexuals are "objectively disordered." Sexual attraction has a biological purpose -- reproduction.
If someone had an irresistible urge to eat by stuffing food in his ear, everyone would recognize that he had some kind of mental disorder. Sexual attraction toward someone of the same sex is equally crazy.
Until a tiny handful of homosexuals/sympathizers in the American Psychological Association got together 20 or 30 years ago and voted homosexuality off the list of disorders, everyone recognized the obvious. Now, they engage in all kinds of doublespeak to avoid recognizing the obvious.
You know, the pope really ought to have extraordinary character. What Ratzinger did in his youth was imminently defensible. Indeed, given the circumstances he was quite brave. Nothing good could have come from his getting himself killed. The pope, however, ought to be a person of extraordinary character. Granted that no one of such extraordinary character would have survived in Nazi Germany in the 40s, but I think this is truly enough to kill Ratzinger's candidacy. Which is too bad.
The Pope is a baby-strangling, Jew-gassing, Hitler-praising Nazi.
Although I should point out that my calculations put his desertion around 1944, maybe later, and I don't know that anyone would have been in a position to enforce it by then. But I'm sure that, even so, it took courage. It wasn't clear that Germany would lose the war, even as late as D-Day, certainly not someone inundated with Nazi propaganda.
One of our readings in Church last Sunday was about Stepehn --- the first Christian (after Christ) killed for his faith.
One of the Jews looking on (if not participating) in the stoning was a young fellow named Saul.
People change.
Worse yet, he's Catholic. Gasp! ;)
How exactly is it a 'smear'? It's the truth isn't it? He was a Hitler youth, apparently returned home, and was drafted into the regular German army. Mind you, it says he deserted towards the end. But it's not like anything the media says will have an effect on the vote anyway.
I don't care one way or the other as I'm not Catholic. But shouldn't historical fact be presented just for knowledge? From the betting though, I've seen his numbers may be cooling a bit as he's too strong at the first. And I came close to betting on him as the choice.
Actually, I think Ratzinger has nothing to be ashamed of in his youthful activities. But at the same time, it's not inspiring either.
Of course. "Hitler's Pope." Can you see it?
Anyway, I'd be delighted with him or Cardinal Arinze.
Ok, now I know what you're talking about.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.