The current Pope was not a Nazi, how could anyone believe such garbage?

Question

The Pope was born in 1927.
WW II ended and the Nazis were defeated when he was 18.
WW II was started by Hitler when he was 12.
Has the bashing of religion gone to far?
Have the ultra leftists just lost all sense of reality?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=As7bHI1H2KgMbzAe8DM6jbTsy6IX?qid=20070512053444AAzoppk&show=7#profile-info-6923342ba221554673e9e41fd20aa427aa

Being forced to be in "hitler youth" does not make him a Nazi by a long shot.

Answer 1

Media and misinformation. Remeber Christ was called many untrue things as well.
Peace Be With You

Answer 2

Of course he was not Nazi. Whoever makes that kind of statement does not know what they are talking about.

I am not too fond of Catholic church, but there are people who have been so wronged by the church. And that is one reason some people say all kind of hateful things.

If you call a dog's tail as a leg, how many legs the dog has?
Hint: The tail is not going to be a leg even when you call it a leg ; )

Answer 3

Understand that people in this twisted day and age will say anything to hurt the Catholic Church. It is a sign of the times, and it will only get worse. All these people coming up with their elaborate conspiracy theories and lies are just making God's children doubt their church and it leads souls to destruction. Don't listen to this garbage, just have faith in the true teachings of the Church. Satan is doing battle with the true Church, using modernism as his main weapon, along with garbage like this and any other kind of deception or twisted truth. But God will win the war, just have faith.

Answer 4

He was part of Hitler's youth, but in reality that means nothing because kids were pretty much forced into that, and it was nothing more than an organization similar to boy scouts, but yes he played no part in the Nazi party.

Answer 5

According to statements by the Pope himself:

1943
Ratzinger, along with the rest of his seminary class, is drafted into the Flak [anti-aircraft corps]. He is still allowed to attend classes at the Maximilians-Gymnasium in Munich three days a week.

1944
September: Having reached military age, Ratzinger is released from the Flak and returns home, only to be drafted into labor detail under the infamous Austrian Legion ("fanatical ideologues who tyrannized us without respite").

November: Ratzinger undergoes basic training with the German infantry. Due to illness he finds himself exempt from most of the rigors of military duty.

1945
Spring (end of April or beginning of May): As the Allied front draws closer, Ratzinger deserts the army and heads home to Traunstein. When the Americans finally arrive at his village, they choose to establish their headquarters in the Ratzinger house. Josef is identified as a German soldier and incarcerated in a POW camp.

June 19: Ratzinger is released and returns home to Traunstein, followed by his brother Georg in July.

You will have to decide whether being drafted into the military, serving in a non-combat role, and deserting made him a "nazi" or not.

Answer 6

He was forced to join the Nazi Youth. What I don't get is why he did - lots of people were forced to do things throughout history and the truly strong would have died for their cause. He didn't even try to fight his way out.

Answer 7

thank you for providing facts but one thing u do miss is the fact that boys did help the Nazis in the concentration camps. do i beleive that the pope was one of them? no but i can see why others have suspicions cus we are still learning things about WW II and its 2007

Answer 8

Hold on!
It's the ULTRA-RIGHTISTS who constantly take on the Catholic Church, the born-again types...
BTW, The Catholic Church is very much left of Centre in india, and we're proud of that fact. We call it 'option for the poor'.
As for the pope being a Hitler Youth. well, he was.
What disturbs me is that the Pope's one of the hardliners and he's making a mess of a lot of other, more complicated things within the Vatican.

Answer 9

No, he was a member of the Nazi Youth Program, that's all. Not like he had a choice anyway.

Answer 10

Um. He was a member of the Hitler Youth and in the military.

It was probably not by his choice, but it's not something he denies, so don't lie on his behalf.

Answer 11

Spin things however you like. This is from a wkipedia article that is very friendly towards Bishop Ratzinger/ Pope Benedict XVI
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The pope's relatives agree that his priestly vocation was apparent from boyhood. At the age of five, Ratzinger was in a group of children who welcomed the visiting Cardinal Archbishop of Munich with flowers. Struck by the Cardinal's distinctive garb, he later announced the very same day that he wanted to be a cardinal.

Following his fourteenth birthday in 1941, Ratzinger was enrolled in the Hitler Youth — membership being legally required after December 1939[3] — but was an unenthusiastic member and refused to attend meetings. His father was a bitter enemy of Nazism, believing it conflicted with the Catholic faith. In 1941, one of Ratzinger's cousins, a 14-year-old boy with Down syndrome, was killed by the Nazi regime in its campaign of eugenics. In 1943 while still in seminary, he was drafted at age 16 into the German anti-aircraft corps. Ratzinger then trained in the German infantry, but a subsequent illness precluded him from the usual rigours of military duty. As the Allied front drew closer to his post in 1945, he deserted back to his family's home in Traunstein after his unit had ceased to exist, just as American troops established their headquarters in the Ratzinger household. As a German soldier, he was put in a POW camp but was released a few months later at the end of the War in summer 1945. He reentered the seminary, along with his brother Georg, in November of that year.
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At the moment he is a Catholic and a
Pope, I think that is worse than being a Nazi.(smirk)