is it true that the current pope was a member of the nazi youth?

Answer 1

Yes

Clarification: He was NOT a Nazi... he was a member of the Hitler Youth... MUCH BETTER!

Check out the link below!

Answer 2

Yes.

As a teenager and young man, Pope Benedict XVI was drafted into the Hitler Youth and the Nazi German Army just like every other non-Jewish German male. He was not given 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.

Every draftee into the Hitler Youth and the Nazi German Army was not a Nazi.

Thank God that you and I live in a very different world that the Pope did in 1930s and 1940s Germany. Or do we?

With love in Christ.

Answer 3

All non-Jewish German boys have been compelled to connect the Hitler young people. The Pope grew to become into later drafted in to the German military. however, the Pope isn't and in no way has been a Nazi. He regrettably grew to become into born and grew up in a rustic ruled by skill of the Nazi social gathering. each and every draftee into the Hitler young people and the Nazi German military grew to become into not a Nazi. in basic terms desire and pray which you do not ought to make a determination to be complete or stay and combat for a central authority in which you do not have faith. Thank God which you and that i stay in an notably diverse worldwide that the Pope did in Thirties and Nineteen Forties Germany. With love in Christ.

Answer 4

Is it true that this question has been posted at least 100 times??

The story that Ratzinger was a member of the Hitler Youth is true. It's a biographical fact that seems to have circulated on many a mailing list, and seems to surface at precisely opportune times when the Prefect finds himself in the media's spotlight. From the way it has been presented, one might assume this is one of those skeletons the Cardinal keeps tucked away in his closet (next to his executioner's axe and the token heads of Hans Kung, Matthew Fox, Leonardo Boff & Charles Curran).

The truth is that as Ratzinger mentions himself in Milestones: Memoirs: 1927 - 1977, he and his brother George were both enrolled in the Hitler Youth (at a time when membership was compulsory), and discusses family life under the Third Reich in chapters 2-4 of his autobiography.

Likewise, John Allen Jr., journalist for the National Catholic Reporter and author of 2002's biography of the Cardinal The Vatican's Enforcer of the Faith, -- supplies the historical details sorely lacking in one of his many articles on the Cardinal ("The Vatican's Enforcer", National Catholic Reporter, April 16, 1999):


As a seminarian, he was briefly enrolled in the Hitler Youth in the early 1940s, though he was never a member of the Nazi party. In 1943 he was conscripted into an antiaircraft unit guarding a BMW plant outside Munich. Later Ratzinger was sent to Austria's border with Hungary to erect tank traps. After being shipped back to Bavaria, he deserted. When the war ended, he was an American prisoner of war.
Under Hitler, Ratzinger says he watched the Nazis twist and distort the truth. Their lies about Jews, about genetics, were more than academic exercises. People died by the millions because of them. The church's service to society, Ratzinger concluded, is to stand for absolute truths that function as boundary markers: Move about within these limits, but outside them lies disaster.

Later reflection on the Nazi experience also left Ratzinger with a conviction that theology must either bind itself to the church, with its creed and teaching authority, or it becomes the plaything of outside forces -- the state in a totalitarian system or secular culture in Western liberal democracies. In a widely noted 1986 lecture in Toronto, Ratzinger put it this way: "A church without theology impoverishes and blinds, while a churchless theology melts away into caprice." *

Answer 5

I am not a Catholic...but I have gone to the website to find out about the current Pope. He was in the Hitler Youth.....no child had a choice in those times....it was mandatory

Answer 6

Joseph Ratzinger, elected Roman Catholic pope, served in the Hitler Youth during World War Two when membership was compulsory, according to his autobiography.

Answer 7

He was a member of Hitler's Youth, but that was mandatory, he had no choice.

Which was very much patterned after the Boy Scouts except that they were trained to hate all those who were not of the Aryan Race.

In other words, blacks and Jews.

Pastor Art

Answer 8

Yes.

But then again almost every boy his age in that part of the world at that time was a Nazi youth.

Answer 9

In a way yes, but he was forced to do it, it wasn't his fault. Besides, even if he were he's God's messenger on Earth and is owed respect.

Answer 10

It wasn't elective....it was what was required during the era when he grew up