Posted on 10/17/2013 6:47:15 AM PDT by NYer
After the Rome diocese refused to allow a church funeral for Erich Priebke, a funeral for the convicted Nazi war criminal was held in a chapel of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) outside Rome.
The October 15 funeral for Priebke drew a crowd of protesters, with some shouting murderer as the coffin passed by, while counter-protesters gave the fascist salute. Police kept the two groups separate.
Priebke, who was convicted for orchestrating the killing of over 300 Italian civilians in the Ardeatine Caves, died last week at the age of 100. He had never disavowed his Nazi ideology.
CORRECTION: NPR reports that the Priebke funeral was "suspended" because the unruly crowd did not allow for safe passage of the casket. Priebke's remains were taken to an undisclosed location, possibly for cremation.
Additional sources for this story
Some links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
Ping!
100 years old? That means he was born in 1913. When the Nazis took over in 1933 he was 20 years old—PRIME age for enlisting the mind of the disenfranchised, whether justified of not. Reminds me of the Liza Minelli film, with Joel Grey—great film.
Why would a Nazi want a church funeral?
The SSPX refused the best offer they were ever going to get, from BXVI. They will get no similar offer from HH Francis.
So they will go steadily further and further off the rails, until they are as irrelevant as that idiot in Arizona or wherever who says HE's the Pope.
Too bad, because they could have strengthened the Church if they had only been willing to bend their stiff necks far enough to repent.
Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood, which was adapted to Cabaret.
Mercy and forgiveness or impossible sin?
Kind of gay, but entertaining. I liked the song Money Makes the World Go Round.
They should have said a few prayers at the cemetery and left it at that.
I happen to believe that we need to be consistent. If we can hold a funeral for Kennedy (pro-abortion) then we can hold a funeral for a Nazi (pro-murder). Neither seemed to have publically recanted their non-Catholic beliefs.
I follow your train of thought and agree that both crimes are equally reprehensible. The significant difference here is that we know the Nazi was not repentant, as per his attorney. We don't know what Kennedy said in private confession on his deathbed.
I happen to think that both men should have re-canted publically due to the public nature of their sins.
Check the Sam Donaldson interview. Priebke admitted his crime. He said he was a Nazi until 1945 and was glad it was over. He said he didn’t want to carry out the order and he was sorry for the victims. Current reports state he had been suffering dementia and had been watching cartoons, so I would discount the “last testament”.
I don’t think Priebke converted to Catholicism until he was in Argentina.
Cradle Catholic, Ted Kennedy is a different story.
I really can't see it that way, because the Church of the Vatican changed (modernized/progressed), abandoning centuries of tradition, whereas the SSPX and others stayed the same. From my vantage point it appears Francis' church is the protestant sect.
But personally I stick with the FSSP and diocese extraordinary forms, insulated from modern heresy as they are. Hope it stays that way.
The problem with the SSPX is that in order to deal with what they asserted was infidelity, they topped it with more infidelity. And that's where they fell down.
Thankfully, we have the FSSP. They have a church locally (with the full approval of our late archbishop, who dedicated it personally with the full and complete Latin rite) and they are straight-up orthodox shepherds.
If there was no repentance, he'd actually rejected forgiveness.
If carried through to the end, he has, literally damnably, and by his own free choice, pushed away his Savior --- and salvation.
No, you can't mean that.
Thee you go. That’s a good answer.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.