Catholics : Does it matter to you that the pope was once a Hitler youth ?

Answer 1

No.

All non-Jewish boys in Germany were compelled to join the Hitler youth. It was just like being drafted. They did not have a choice.

The Pope is not and never has been a Nazi. He unfortunately was born and grew up in a country ruled by the Nazi party.

Thank God, you and I live in a very different world than the Pope and millions of other people did in 1930s and 1940s Germany.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

it does not bother me. if anything, it just shows you how accepting and forgiving The Church is. it shows you that no matter what road you have been down and are on, you can still come back from it, there is still hope. so no, it does not matter to me-in a negative way-that the Pope was once a Hitler youth.

Answer 3

It would matter to me if he had actually supported the idea. The fact that he was mandatorily inducted into it without any wish to participate is not, I think, a thing of much significance.

More telling is that after later being inducted into the German army, he deserted. I think that is all the evidence one really needs that he did not support the ambitions of the Nazi government. Ratzinger also played a role in the development of Nostre Aetate, one of the most important documents in church history, and the most significant step the church took in restoring harmonious relations with the Jews.

Answer 4

No, of course not.

He was conscripted into the Hitler youth as a boy, and then conscripted into the German army in his teens.

You should know that his family were outspoken critics of the Nazis while they were in power.

Answer 5

no cos he ran away from it

Answer 6

That is no problem for me.