[Dr. Eckleburg]

You're reciting propaganda, Mrs. D. There is no evidence any of that took place. For all we know the family handed over the child with Down Syndrome to the state which many many parents did in those days, not only in Germany but in this country, too.

Read up on this country's eugenics history. It's not pretty.

Ratzinger, as Marlowe pointed out, has struck out so many times that his team should be out of the league.

He was in the Hitler Youth.

His father was an SS officer (regardless of all the footwork to erase that history.)

He was head of the Office of the Inquisition during the most recent pederast priest scandals where he covered up the sins of these priests, protected the priests at the expense of the victims, and is now morally and criminally liable for the pain and suffering of thousands of children world-wide.

He cozies up to terrorists and provides a televised stage for and shakes hands with jihadist terrorists like Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi. Twice.

He defends Gaza Palestinians over the Jews.

He condemns all other Christian churches as "defective."

And he writes an insidious "global authority" encyclical which is pure communism from first page to last where he asserts the need for the United States and the rest of the world to put their sovereignty, politics, economics, immigration policies, food distribution, education, welfare and religion under the absolute control of a single "global authority" who has the power of enforcement "with teeth."

Step back, folks, and really examine this. If some two-bit dictator had done all this he would have been run out of town long ago.

The sad fact is not that Ratzinger is all these things and thus unfit to be pope. The sad fact is that to be pope all these things are just fine with the magisterium and the laity.

Rome does not change. Tyrants never do.

[RegulatorCountry]

Mrs. Don-o is a very decent person and would not knowingly spread propaganda, Dr. Eckleburg. She's trying to defend her faith as best she knows how.

You and I agree more often than not, theologically, but not always. I wouldn't expect you to accuse me of propagandizing in those areas where we disagree, I would expect a little more care to be taken.

I have my own disagreements with her theology, as obviously do you, but treat Mrs. Don-o the same, please.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Good day. I do not tire of correcting the misinformation on these issues, not at all: I thank you for the opportunity.

You say that there is "no evidence" only because you ignore eye-witness accounts (the only evidence there is for most family incidents) and archived papers and documents (the sources for historians like Pinchas Lapide). Thus a large counterweight of evidence seems to slide off of you without making any discernable impression; however the up-side is that many other people get the opportunity to read, to judge, to evaluate.

Here at Free Republic, there are always more "views" than there are "replies". And those for whom evidence is not entirely irrelevant, get the benefit of a richer fare partly because of your persistence.

See? There's grace everywhere.

For instance, you have given me the welcome opportunity to refute the libel that Joseph Ratzinger's father was an SS officer. In fact, Joseph Ratzinger, Sr., was a rural Bavarian police officer who served in both the Bavarian State Police (Landespolizei) and the German national Regular Police (Ordnungspolizei) before retiring in 1937. He was an open opponent of the SS.

The Sunday Times (UK)--- not, incidentally, "Catholic propagandists" ---- described the older Ratzinger as "an anti-Nazi whose attempts to rein in Hitler’s Brown Shirts forced the family to move several times." He opposed the Reich's reorganization and absorption of legitimate local police, and according to the New York Times --- also not "Catholic propagandists" --- the family's frequent relocations were directly related to Joseph Ratzinger, Sr.'s continued resistance to Nazism, which resulted in demotions and transfers. The pope's brother Georg said: "Our father was a bitter enemy of Nazism because he believed it was in conflict with our faith".

On a different topic: some FReepers may be interested in gaining a better understanding of what the Catholic Church teaches about "subsidiarity." It's the opposite and antidote to "socialism," and it is at the core of a real Catholic understanding of a just society. Many Catholics don't understand this because of the garbled and fragmentary level of teaching, especially in the US, but here's a good reference, supplied by FReeper Salvation:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2288331/posts

This is all relevant to Pope Benedict, since the editorial board for the Catechism was chaired by none other than Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

Thank you again.

[Iscool]

AMEN...

[Natural Law]

"He condemns all other Christian churches as "defective."

Because they clearly and irrefutably are, beginning with the OPC.