Maher to Apologize for Calling Pope a 'Nazi'

CNSNews.com ^ | April 17, 2008 | Melanie Hunter-Omar

[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.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Look at it this way: truly hateful people give us the opportunity to obey more of Christ's commandments. If we didn't have enemies, we wouldn't have the opportuity to "love our enemies."

I need to exercise that weak love muscle every day. And like all my weak feeble muscles, it quickly tends toward aches & pains when exercised. Exaudi nos, Domine.

[AnAmericanMother]

EXAUDI nos, Domine sancte, Pater omnipotens, aeterne Deus: et mittere digneris sanctum Angelum tuum de caelis, qui custodiat, foveat, protegat, visitet atque defendat omnes habitantes in hoc habitaculo. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

[SJackson]

it's the illustrations/illuminations that make it absolutely unique....with Nazis as Egyptian taskmasters, Hitler and Goering as the wicked son, and Nazi armbands on the serpents. At least in the original, unpublished version.

[paterfamilias]

“See Acts.16:31.”

Oh, is that all it takes? No good works? No repudiation of sin? No penance?

Is that why you guys are so free to hate and still call yourselves “christian”?

You mean, those magic words “I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior” immunize you against the lies and hatred that you continue to spew? I guess that’s why Rev. Wright can be a race-hater and be “saved.”

Well, I guess I’m “saved” too. But I’ll continue to pray for you, anyway.

[AnAmericanMother]

Hmmm. I know he had some trouble getting it published, but what I understood is that once WWII broke out, nobody minded about the Nazi references. Do you have any examples?

The Nazi references in my copy are not that overt, although they are there (note the Germanic features on Goliath above - in fact he bears more than a passing resemblance to Goering). I think that the Egyptian taskmaster and his killing by Moses were not changed from the original, because the limited edition re-issue that's in press now has that same illustration. And the four sons are not any particular individual, although the Wicked Son is a Germanized Jew.

Syzk certainly had at the Nazis in other contexts, not only in his frankly political cartoons and illustrations but in his Judaica -- particularly in the Book of Esther, with Haman --

The text before Szyk reads, "the people Israel will be liberated from their persecutors." The hamentasch is a nice touch too.

[Laur]

In your apology for Maher’s statements, you rely on humor as his/your defense. At no point was Maher even attempting to be humorous, so he crossed no “humor” line. He simply, as usual, used his airtime to vent his often vicious views. There is no defense for him in this particular case.

[AnAmericanMother]

Maybe I've got an Austrian accent (heck, I know I do), but to me it looks like

NA-tse-ohn-ahl-SO-tse-ahl-EES-tisch-eh DOYT-cheh ar-BYE-ter-par-TYE.

I've never learned the IPA well enough to use it, though, so it's all an approximation anyhow . . . .

[Petronski]

Yours looks more accurate. I was ad-libbing.

[AnAmericanMother]

Pretty darned close then. I studied German for 6 years in junior high and high school and 4 years in college, and I've tried to keep up with it.

Btw, the Pope's German accent is SO sweet! Very soft, very Bavarian, just the way you would imagine a gentle parish priest from somewhere upcountry speaking.

[Ouderkirk]

I was/am not attempting to apologize for Bill Maher. Not my responsibility to apologize for him.

I do have the clarity of mind to realize that he was trying to make jokes. They were bad jokes, but punchlines just the same.

You all need to step back and relax a bit for several reasons.

This was an attempt by Maher at comedy at the expense of the pope (who by the way, is a public figure, vicar of christ not withstanding) and secondly, this has gained Maher more popularity for his show.

Maher presents himself as someone who is as intelligent smart-ass. He’s definitely working the same ethereal humor that Dennis Miller is working. No I’m not comparing Maher to Miller, I’m saying that they are working the same schtick. Miller is smart, and knows the technique and how to use it, and his jokes are much more subtle. Meaning that if you didn’t understand his joke, you need to do a little research to get the punchline. When you do research some of his points, you will find yourself equally appalled at some of the things that Miller has said.

Maher is a decent comedian, when he’s not talking politics. However, he does not understand when to pull back on his approach to controversy to make a joke funny. In this case these jokes quite simply, were not funny. They were coarse and juvenile. But he’s still a decent comedian when he’s not talking politics.

[SJackson]

Hmmm. I know he had some trouble getting it published, but what I understood is that once WWII broke out, nobody minded about the Nazi references. Do you have any examples?

Even in England, 1940, they wouldn't publish something suggesting the Reich was morally culpable. This one wasn't included

Page dedicated to German and Austrian Jews, 1938

Not sure about this one, I think there was another version with a swastika on the armband, and this is the "clean" version included.

I think the US Holocaust Museum has a few others, you might check the links. I'm not aware of a single, consolidated source of the unincluded pages.

http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/szyk/

http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/szyk/jewish/71420.htm

http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/szyk/jewish/93820.htm

http://www.szykhaggadah.com/release.html

Szyk designed and painted the original artwork in Lodz, Poland, between 1934 and 1936, when European Jewry endured heightened abuses on the eve of World War II. His artwork drew parallels between the Passover narrative, with its Egyptian taskmasters, and the Nazi taskmasters, who were plotting the enslavement and death of the Jews of Europe. Illustrations included illuminated serpents and tigers with Nazi swastikas, their cut heads replaced with images of Hitler and Goering and among the Four Sons, with the "wicked son" portrayed with a Nazi armband. No publisher would produce it with German imagery, so Szyk had to remove them prior to publication. The Haggadah was originally printed in London in 1940, in a limited edition of 250 copies on calfskin vellum, with commentary by Anglo-Jewish historian Cecil Roth. Compared to the great illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, it was produced by The Sun Engraving Company for the Beaconsfield Press.

At that time it was the most expensive new book in the world and has since become one of the most reproduced of any 20th century Passover Haggadah. "No edition until now," according to publisher Irvin Ungar "has been able to capture Szyk's palette which was one of unusual brightness and intensity; his virtuoso draftsmanship extraordinary in its detail. Our edition takes advantage of every recent advance in photography, color reproduction, and papermaking technology, and as such, our publication promises to be a bibliographic landmark on all levels."

[Dr. Eckleburg]

The Hitler youth were the most fanatical Hilter supporters and gave our troops alot of trouble with terrorist tactics. So, we are not talking about the boy scouts here.

Yep. Although there are plenty around here who would like us all to think they were just a bunch of kickball-loving youngsters who played nice.

The lack of historical understanding is pretty amazing. We've been told Ratzinger deserted the military, as if that displayed some kind of ideological, anti-fascist statement on his part. In reality, Ratzinger "deserted" in May of 1945 along with half the German army who headed for the hills only miles in front of Patton and the conquering Allies.

With this false bishop of Rome having been a member of the Hitler Youth, we can only imagine the next one's credentials. Camp guard, perhaps? (((shudder)))

[Petronski]

Your hatred of Catholics and Catholicism seems boundless.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

"31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." -- Acts 16:31

AMEN!

Isn't it amazing there are some here who think it's more complicated than God's word tells them? One has to wonder if they even understand what Paul meant when he said he "knew whom he had believed."

Men love the darkness. They feel safer in their chains. It's as simple as that. Even when Christ Himself tells them, they ignore it, ridicule it, demean it.

"Be not afraid; only believe." -- Mark 5:36

[Dr. Eckleburg]

I do not "hate Catholics."

Please stop bearing false witness and breaking FR rules by "making this personal."

[Petronski]

I’m not making it personal. I know you by your fruits.

[Petronski]

Isn't it amazing there are some here who think it's more complicated than God's word tells them?

Acts 16:31 is not ALL of God's word.

[AnAmericanMother]

The right upper arm of the Wicked Son looks like it MIGHT have had something there that was removed - hard to tell at that resolution.

Syzk did numerous different dedication pages while he was attempting to get the work published, including the dedication to the Jews of Austria and Germany. The new limited edition is including several of those rejected dedications as tip-ins. The work as published was dedicated to King George of England.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Do you believe Christ? Christ said "Be not afraid; only believe."

In regards to being saved, that's what it takes -- God's gift of grace through faith in His Son as Lord and Savior.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

For you to say that I “hate Catholics” is “making it personal” and is yet another instance of your breaking the FR rules.