I'm glad you included your last sentence. However, your loaded choice of words in the first two sentences is misleading and indicative of a flawed premise: that even though Ratzinger as a 14 year-old boy was a Nazi, he deserves a chance because he has atoned for that "mistake" since then.
This implied slur that is being bruited about in the MSM is absolute rubbish. Ratzinger does not "have a background in the Hitler Youth"; he was FORCED, as a 14 year-old child, to participate, and as soon as he could get out, he did.
wagglebee, you nailed it: "The Pope was a victim of Hitler just like many other Germans, he was not a war criminal, he was not a Nazi and he has never said anything that would lead anyone to believe he felt anything but love for the Jewish people. You have given us the sound bite to shut-down anyone who raises this canard:
"The Pope was not a supporter of Hitler, he was a 14 year-old victim of Hitler."
Exactly. Pope Benedict's membership in Hitler's youth corps had nothing to do with being an "impressionable" youth. It was compulsory service in a totalitarian State.