Posted on 04/20/2005 1:32:19 PM PDT by marylandrepub1
In his teens, he was briefly a member of the Hitler Youth, drafted into the army and eventually deserted. He served time in a POW camp. In 1951, he was ordained and became a Cardinal in 1977. In 1981, Pope John Paul II appointed him head of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, where he has served for the last quarter of a century.
He is widely viewed as a conservative theologian and a hard-line enforcer of Catholic Church doctrine. In the 1980s, Ratzinger was a fierce opponent of liberation theology.
He strongly opposes abortion, an increased role of women in the church, artificial birth control and homosexuality.
In 2003, Ratzinger's office issued instructions to Catholic politicians to vote against gay marriage. During last year's presidential election campaign, he advised US bishops to deny Communion to politicians who support abortion rights - who many saw as directly targeting Catholic presidential candidate, John Kerry. Ratzinger also publicly cautioned Europe against admitting Turkey to the European Union stating that the continent is essentially Christian
(Excerpt) Read more at democracynow.org ...
Every teenage male German citizen was required, by law, to be a member of the Hitler Youth. The fact he was forced into an organization by Government mandate is meaningless.
Besides he freely admits it in his own autobigraphy. They (the left) hate him for upholding the word of God and the traditions of Catholicism, not for his forced servitude in an organization that has been dead for 60 years.
Let the Libs scream all they want.
%%
Yep. The fact that they are having such a hissy fit tells me what a great choice he is.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
AMAZING -- JPII's hand-picked successor elected by JPII's hand-picked college of cardinals -- who would have thought it possible? And what is more amazing -- NO CHANGE is forecast!
I stand corrected
"They have to be very careful about accusing W of being dumb on one hand and attributing really clever stuff to him on the other."
Of course.
Because if Bush is a doofus, then the smartest man in the Senate and the inventor of the modern world (did you hear? Al Gore invented the Internet!) were both bested by a doofus.
Clearly Karl Rove reached into the conclave and threatened the cardinals there with IRS audits or pictographic exposees if they did not elect the Panzer Cardinal Pope.
"AAAAAAAAAH HELLO!He is a Catholic Pope for goodness sake. Of course heis anti abortion and anti gay marriage and anti liberalism."
Ah, Karl Rove's spin machine claims another victim, I see.
Clearly the Vatican is just a tool of Karl Rove, as is the World Bank, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Gnomes of Zurich. But, of course, Karl Rove is himself just a puppet of the REAL puppetmaster, who is a senechaux of the Illuminati.
Everyone knows this.
". . .I think women are very disturbed by the fact that there was a conclave at all, from which we were completely excluded. And we really were favoring, and I still favor and put out to your listeners, a possibility: the notion of an international team for the papacy. If the papacy is supposed to be a symbol of unity and not a person with authority, then it makes much more sense in a post-modern time to think not about one person, and especially not one person as divisive as Cardinal Ratzinger, but in fact to think about an intergenerational, international team of men and women who could in fact meet and lead a billion people using technology and travel as a way to bring many voices into the discussion. So we're really pushing for a horizontal model of church, not the vertical one that Cardinal Ratzinger represents. But I’m not sure we would have been happy with anyone who would have been elected by this very flawed process."
The successor of Peter is supposed to be "not a person with authority?" Who knew?
I guess this "push" would necessitate a new Bible translation that goes something like "Thou art Peter, Paul, Mary, etc., and upon this intergenerational, international and horizontal (ouch!) team I will build my church of inclusive unification."
Couldn't these people just find another religion to pick on?
These people are absolute lunatics!!!
"Pope Benedict XVI: Anti-War, Anti-Gay, Anti-Choice, Anti-Reform"
So, basically, it's all good, yes?
= D
Funny too how "Liberation Theology" seems to be accepted
whereas a republican speaking at a church is anathema.
The liberals can go start their own religion.
Find someone that can walk on water, heal the blind, heal the crippled, change the weather, raise the dead, suffer torture, die willingly, and finally rise from the dead. If they can do that then they can start their own religion and set the rules that they want followed.
Until that happens they should just stay away.
Why, oh why do these people STAY in the CAtholic Church then? Why don't they slouch on over to the Unitarian Universalist church where anything goes?
The positive view = Pope Benedict XVI: Pro-Peace, Pro-Marriage, Pro-Life, Pro-Christ
"Clearly the Vatican is just a tool of Karl Rove, as is the World Bank, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Gnomes of Zurich. But, of course, Karl Rove is himself just a puppet of the REAL puppetmaster, who is a senechaux of the Illuminati."
"PUT DOWN the CRACK PIPE !!!
step slowly away....put on the little white coat, and the tinfoil hat!!"
Ah, yet another one taken in by Cthulu.
Alas.
here's an honest answer:
Because, deep in the recesses of their minds, they STILL BELIEVE. They don't want to leave; to abandon Christ. What they want is for the Vicar of Christ to say: it's all OK. All that stuff we've condemned for 2000 years? Don't worry about it. That was THEN, and this is now.
They want that life preserver; they want to be able to say, 'but, I was told it was OK.'
IMHO, of course. Based on the fact that I'd like an exemption from sin myself...
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