Posted on 05/12/2009 8:51:06 PM PDT by Steelfish
Vatican stumbles in defense of Pope Benedict
A spokesman, stung by criticism of the pope during his Holy Land trip, inaccurately says Benedict never belonged to the Hitler Youth. Benedict presses ahead with his visit, calling for peace.
By Richard Boudreaux May 13, 2009
Reporting from Jerusalem -- Pope Benedict's pilgrimage to the Holy Land veered Tuesday into controversy over his past when the Vatican, stung by Israeli criticism, denied and then acknowledged his membership in the Hitler Youth during World War II.
The conflicting accounts came in response to Israeli leaders who faulted the German pontiff for not mentioning, in an address at the Holocaust Memorial on Monday, that he had witnessed Nazi terror as a conscript in the youth movement and the German army.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Criticised for something he didn’t say, the anti Catholic slander and hatred is becoming quite frightening. and I must say many Israelis and Jewish Americans have contributed to this lunacy. I know many Jews who think the Popes have been Nazis. The whole thing is very sad.
Rabbi Marvin Heir of the Weisenthal Center in LA recently wrote a slanderous op-ed article on BXVI and repeating the canard on Pius XII. He is the same scoundrel who in 1984 boycotted the visit of JPII to Los Angeles.
Yeah right the Catholic Church will fold its tent because the Pope visited Israe and made perfectly appropriate remarks.
I have to say this incident indicates the Church should not go out of it’s way to assist Israel. If one looks at what happened here it was exactly - NOTHING.
The Pope said absolutely nothing that is being criticized. Instead the usual suspects lined up to hurl stones based on their own twisted views of past history. Why bother to get involved if this is the reaction?
Jesus said “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake of the dust from you feet as you leave that house or town.you will be hated by all because of my name” (Mat 10:22)
The worst is yet to come.
And if one did’nt belong to the Hitler Youth you were beat at will. You were treated as scum.
We WILL see the very thing happen in this country if people do not get with it soon.
Michael Savage, who is Jewish, defended the Pope this evening. He noted that Israel in the 1950’s named a forest after Pope Pius XII, and asked why they would do that if they thought he was complicit with the Nazis. I have a problem with the Pope’s calling for a Palestinian state and his Yad Vashem speech was not inspired, but the attacks on him have gone way too far.
The Catholic Church is NOT lost. It is the only church that has stood against abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, embryonic stem cell research, contraception — and the list goes on. The Catholic Church will be the only one still standing!
All the other churches are watering down their doctrine, if you can really say they have a doctrine.
At least that’s not happening with Pope Benedict.
PS. Remember this was a LAT hit piece.
By constantly having the Vatican defend that BXVI never at any time had Nazi sympathies, the defamatory is in the innuendo. To the extent that some Jews like Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center propound and propagate this vile slander against BXVI and keep calling Pius XII “Hitler’s Pope” I think it’s time for the Catholic Church to call a time-out on Catholic-Jewish relations.
The slander is in the need to mount a defense. Here’s an excerpt of an AP Report below:
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM – The Vatican defended Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday as a man of strong anti-Nazi credentials and a peacemaker in the face of mounting Israeli criticism and Arab anger over the Israeli occupation.
Critics faulted the German-born pope for failing to apologize in a speech at Israel’s Holocaust memorial for what they see as Catholic indifference during the Nazi genocide — a controversy that threatened to overshadow his high-profile pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Benedict delivered messages of peace Tuesday while visiting the holiest Muslim and Jewish sites in Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall.
The “stumble” was for the Pope to go to ISRAEL in the first place. The ISRAELIS are notoriously ungraceful hosts. And they despise believing Christians. Why go there at all?
The Catholic Church continues to ad to its congregation in much of the emerging world. I dare say that the church will outlive most of the modern worlds brush with all things secular and will outlive all of its critics and their false teachings.
Yes- as all little kids were forced to wear the uniform. This is the slander that continues.
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