How do Catholics feel having an ex-Nazi as their religious leader?

Question

I don't recall ever having Stalin or Pol Pot as my leader. Sorry.

Actually, the Pope was in Wehrmacht and Air Defense as well.

It's no joke. It's a fact. Check his bio.

Some people claim he's still a Nazi.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/19/173211/744

Answer 1

As a teenager and young man, Joseph Ratzinger (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 2

For those that don't know: the current pope used to be a Nazi

I'm not Catholic, but I have no problem with it. The 'brainwashing' of Nazi's was simple but effective - flood every area of life with Nazi propaganda, reward those who conform (the 'good Nazi's') with holidays, bicycles and medals, and punish those who don't with death. It might not be a nice reality to face, but almost every white person living today would have been a Nazi under those conditions.

What's important is that when the Nazi's disbanded after defeat, those people changed. Having a chequred past doesn't make you a bad person in the present.

Answer 3

Pope Benedict is not an ex-Nazi because he was never a Nazi to begin with. You don't seem to be aware of the fact his family was forced to move - by Nazi's - out of areas of Germany reserved only for true Arians. This is because his family was very outspoken against Hitler's way of doing things.

Eventually, as with all German youths, he was drafted into the Hitler Youth. His record of "accomplishments" as a Hitler youth leaves a lot to be desired because his heart was not into the pro-Arian anti-Jewish ideology. Later on, he was again drafted into the German armies artillery branch.

It "soft" countries like America, you get get away with being a draft dodger but it places like Nazi Germany, they killed you for that sort of thing.

You don't sound as if you have much in the way of historical perspective. Gain some, and them you'll see things in a much truer light.

Answer 4

To the girl above. yes the pope was a part of the Hitler Youth, but some claim it was because he was forced. Either way if it was a choice or mandated, that was a very long time ago. it was a different time and fear can make you do things you wouldn't normally do.

I am not a practicing catholic, but I wouldn't hold it against him.

I'm sure he is not proud of it, and even if it was by choice not out of fear, there were a lot of things that made sense back then whether or not you believe that.

hitlers idea weren't bad as a whole, it was how he executed them and then became drunk on power.

I know i will get a lot of thumbs down and you are entitled to your beliefs, but please actually look at with a completely open mind and evaluate the actual concept without all the death.

Answer 5

Hitler pronounced despite had to learn the honour of the German people. They have been an exceedingly religious people, Catholic and Protestant. Hitler sought to convey them mutually, Catholics beside Protestants, into one state church. there is fairly some information pointing to this. Protestants and Catholics alike grew to become to Hitler as though he have been a god. Protestants and Catholics alike have been murdered for battling the Nazis on subject concerns like euthanasia and the persecution of the Jews. It grew to become into insanity, yet many rose above it despite if Protestant or Catholic. Luther spoke very harshly against the Jews. So did many Catholic clergymen. No church grew to become into accountable as a church. persons acted the two in a Christian way or an unChristian way. It grew to become right into a time of upheaval on the grandest scale and a time whilst everybody's maximum simple faults or virtues arose to the outdoors in this style of action. i think of that what the Pope did wasn't lots diverse from what Neville Chamberlain did, yet i'm no pupil on the priority.

Answer 6

uhm, a bit weird but so is this Hot Dog I am eating: why don't they call it a "sausage"??

And do you know that salad in trapani (south of italy) gets sent on a 1 day trip to Holland for packaging before going back on another 1 day trip to the supermarkets of trapani? People say "2 days old salad is still fairly fresh!"

What about the UK importing half of their potatoes from Germany and Germany importing half of their potatoes from the UK??

The world is full of strange facts.

BTW, where the Pope lives they allow for 4 mosques to be built each and every day, while in non nazi Muslim lands no church building is or was ever permitted, so does it matter more what one was or how one thinks?

Answer 7

What the pope did in the past is irrelevant to who he is today. You have to realize Jesus saves some messed up people some times. He doesn't look at what the person did in the past if they truley repented and seek him. God forgets that persons sin. What an awesome thing that someone who used to be a Nazi can be used as one of Gods world leaders through his grace.

Answer 8

membership of the hitlerjugend was compulsory by the time joseph ratzinger was fourteen, and by 1943 (when he was drafted into the wehrmacht air-defence) germany was already losing the war, and it was not possible to refuse the draft.

joseph's father was a prominent critic of nazi policies from a catholic point of view (most catholics admired the nazi party).

there are a lot of very troubling aspects of cardinal ratzinger's papacy (as prefect for the congregation of the doctrine of the faith he openly censured the harry potter books as spiritually dangerous, and he has said some very strange things about islam). why do you feel you need to make allegations against him which are so easily discounted?

Answer 9

How do the YewwessofAyvians feel having someone whose grandfather made their fortune from the Nazi party as their president?

Answer 10

They don't really give it a second thought.

He was not really a "Nazi". Just a German soldier doing what he was told. That is what he was brought up in, and he became something else.