Posted on 04/18/2008 6:40:10 AM PDT by paterfamilias
Maher to Apologize for Calling Pope a 'Nazi' By Melanie Hunter-Omar CNSNews.com Senior Editor April 17, 2008
(CNSNews.com) - Liberal talk show host Bill Maher, whose controversial comments about the pope drew fire from the Catholic community, is planning to apologize Friday night for falsely accusing Pope Benedict XVI of being a Nazi, the Catholic League announced Thursday.
Catholic League President Bill Donohue received a phone call Thursday from an HBO executive regarding comments Maher made last Friday on HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher."
As Cybercast News Service previously reported, Donohue said Maher "lied when he said the Pope 'used to be a Nazi.' Like all young men in Germany at the time, he was conscripted into a German Youth organization (from which he fled as soon as he could). Every responsible Jewish leader has acknowledged this reality and has never sought to brand the Pope a Nazi. That job falls to Maher."
Apparently HBO agreed with Donohue's assessment. "Apparently, now Maher does as well. Ergo, the apology," Donohue said.
So will the Catholic League accept Maher's apology?
"Assuming it comes across as genuine, the answer is yes. But I hasten to add that what we would really like to see is for Maher to stop with his hateful diatribes against the Catholic Church. So this is a start, but it hardly puts to rest our concerns," said Donohue.
"After all, there are plenty of factually accurate things Maher could say about other groups that would insult its members, but he chooses not to go there. Perhaps he can add Catholics and the Catholic Church to that protected list as well," he added.
Comment
If truth be know, Maher fits the description given by the left wing liberal, socialists and closet commie Barracks Hussein Obama for what he thinks constitutes a bitter person.
“In all the world, across continents and oceans and nationalities, the RCC could find no man up to the task of being pope other than someone who had been a member of the Hitler Youth and whose father was in the S.S.”
That’s the Big Lie - Ratziger’s father was never a member of the SS, and in fact, was anti-Nazi. As a 14 year-old, Pope Benedict was FORCED to be a member of the Hitler Youth. Your implication was that his family and he were Nazis.
At any rate, it’s a non-issue - if the Holocaust-surviving Chief Rabbi of the Park East Synagogue in New York thinks his youthful association in the Hitler Youth is a non-issue, you should, too, that is unless you need it as a tool to bash Catholics.
So, don’t act too hurt that I responded in kind.
And BTW, I really liked your personal page. Glad to have you as a fellow FReeper.
If you can show me, via Scripture and the non Roman Catholic Creeds where I am incorrect, go for it.
Joseph Ratzinger was 6 years old when Hitler came to power in 1933. His father (also named Joseph) was a small-town policeman who had utter contempt for, and openly opposed, Hitler's Brown Shirts, and for this reason was forced out of his job and several subsequent rural and small-town police jobs, requiring his family to move several times.
They finally settled in Traunstein, where they used to clandestinely listen to Allied radio broadcasts, an anti-Nazi activity which was, of course, strictly illegal. In December 1939, membership in Hitler Youth was made mandatory, and Ratzinger's entire class was automatically enrolled. Young Ratzinger refused to attend meetings (a remarkable thing, I think, for a 14-year-old.) At about the same time, in early 1941, the Nazis seized of one of Ratzinger's first cousin, who was also 14 years old and had Downs Syndrome, and --- what is the word? -- liquidated him. As you can imagine, this event which the whole family.
Ratzinger left high school and enrolled in the minor seminary, which did not have Hitler Youth. Two years later, at age 16 and still in the seminary, he was drafted into the German anti-aircraft corps, in a unit which included many who were conspicuously unwilling to be there (conscripts and slave laborers from Dachau were also assigned to this unit.)
Rarzinger never took part in combat and, in fact, never fired a weapon. In April 1944 he deserted. He made his way back on foot to his family's home in Traunstein, just as American troops established their headquarters in the Ratzinger household. As a German soldier, he was put in a POW camp but was released a few months later at the end of the War in summer 1945.
Thus concludes Joseph Ratzinger's "Nazi career." It forms the historic and personal basis for Ratzinger's lifelong opposition to the "Culture of Death." It is corroborated from many reliable sources all over the Internet; a good place for you to begin might be this eye-opening article from Jewish World Review.
I'm sure you'll keep this in mind the next time you write about Pope Benedict.
We ARE calling for him to be fired.
You didn’t notice?
http://www.hbo.com/apps/submitinfo/contactus/submit.do?title=Real%20Time%20with%20Bill%20Maher&questiontype=realtimewithbillmaher
Thanks for this information. I wrote. I have to imagine the electrons are still smokin' ...
He made things worse if this was supposed to be an apology.
I am cancelling HBO right after John Adams tomorrow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD4wk8xi83E
The main point I was making was that if the Pope, instead of a "religious figure" was the CEO of a chain of nationwide daycare centers - who had thousands of employees who had been caught molesting children and then covering it up - he would have been in jail. So...and I noticed they didn't say a word about that!
The Good Padre was lucky he didn't get captured by a Canadian Army outfit. They would have handed him back to the Germans for punishment, which could have included a firing squad.
So Pope Benedict XVI should be in jail for something that happened prior to him becoming Pope... I hope you are not part of our judicial system.
Me, or Bill Maher? Those are his words.
Well that must be it. He sure harbors a lot of anger. You can see it in his face. Sad pitiful little man for sure. Better him than me.
Well that must be it. He sure harbors a lot of anger. You can see it in his face. Sad pitiful little man for sure. Better him than me.
“I am cancelling HBO right after John Adams tomorrow.”
My thoughts, exactly
Portrait of another relic the RCC is hawking?
Ratzinger's father was in the S.S. for two years until he retired. Plenty of young men chose not to join the Hitler Youth. There were ways around it. Others went along with it, as Ratzinger apparently did.
Revisionism is fraught with peril because it fosters an incorrect reading of the present as well as the past.
Yes, there are some Jews who praise Ratzinger. Israel needs the Vatican's recognition as an independent state, and some are willing to compromise the truth of the past for the security of the present.
In all the world there was not one human being on the face of the planet who could lead one billion Catholics except for a man who had once been in the Hitler Youth and whose father had been a member of the S.S.
Not one man.
Doesn't that concern you at all? Is that the best the RCC has?
People like him is why we got the stereo type name ugly American
Ratzinger's father was a member of the S.S. for two years when the S.S. took over his police unit. He didn't retire when that happened. Instead, he stayed on for two more years until he reached retirement age.
Soon we will hear that Ratzinger was secretly working for the Allies. I think he drew up the plans for D-Day and was actually the first man on Omaha Beach.
He also built the first submarine and was instrumental in the creation of the modern skinless bratwurst.
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