Is That Legal?

On Twaddle re Pope Benedict XVI

Membership in the Hitler Youth was mandatory at that time for people of Ratzinger's age. Even if it were not, a teen-age boy is not quite as clear-headed ethically as is an adult. He was also in the Wehrmacht, and deserted. Is he bad for deserting and going over to the enemy? Or good for leaving the Nazis and helping US?

The experience he had in Germany as a young man has made this pope (like his predecessor) quite sensitive to the claims of members of other religions to respect.

The biography comment I saw said that his father picked up and moved the family several times because of his police job, but that one time they moved because the father decided he had way too many Nazi neighbors to make life comfortable or safe for non-Nazis like him and his family. This seems a little more reasonable.

Some elements of the Catholic church tacitly supported the NSDAP up until 1933; Effective Catholic resistance was pretty much supressed by 1937/1938[USHMM, German Churches and the NAZI State]

Resitance to the Fascist, Nazi, and Tojo regimes was incredibly dangerous; the courage of the righteous gentiles is simply astounding. The White Rose has already been mentioned, but there are other stories to be told.

One example is [Yad Vashem] Chiune Sugihara, Japanese Consol, who with help from Jan Zwartendijk, a Dutchman, enabled 2200 jews to escape from Lithuania [remember.org: David Kranzler, The Story of Jan Zwartendijk

The trees that line the Avenue of The Righteous Amongst The Nations at Yad Vashem are anchors of hope to pull oneself back from the blackness of the rest of the site; and yet they number only 20,757, and only 410 of these were German.

The moral courage of a [Yad Vashem] Bernhard Lichtenberg is immense, yet as the last real point of German Catholic resistance, it strains against the weight of 6,000,000

The oral courage some found to oppose the Nazis is commendable to say the least, and it is a sad commentary on human nature to note that such courage is all too rarely seen.

I wonder whether Bricklayer would consider it an act of moral courage to ask Ann Coulter a simple question about her position on a particular conflict in light of the likely and actual threats of serious violence that may erupt from her thuggish fascistic audience members? We probably would find that he regrets that "uncivil" things may be said to the questioner, but that he'll excuse the incivility because, after all, one can't expect not to be threatened when attending a fascist teach-in unless you blindly follow the partly line.

I'm sure we can excuse Papa BXVI's youthful membership in the Hitler Youth for many reasons, but I don't think it beyond the pale to ask Papa to be fully honest about it.

pike

Eric,

You're a man with limited time on his hands. This is a finite world with finite resources. Why go down this road?

It is easy for a skeptical Catholic to doubt your sincerity in this matter. Leftists, in general, are hostile to dogmatic Catholics. Perhaps also you blame him for interfering in the 2004 election. The fact is, there is ample cause for concern that your motives are entirely sinister. In fact, that you're redoubling your efforts in the face of criticism seems to prove you haven't listened to caution on this.

If anything, all you are doing is proving that the left hates Catholics.

Just about everything a Pope does is beyond The Pale...

He was also in the Wehrmacht, and deserted. Is he bad for deserting and going over to the enemy?

No, because he didn't go over to the enemy. He went home. Here's what happened, in his own words:

"Hitler's death finally strengthened our hope that things would soon end. The unhurried manner of the American advance, however, deferred more and more the day of liberation. At the end of April or the beginning of May -- I do not remember precisely -- I decided to go home."

-Rueters

He was a discontented soldier who abandoned a war that was clearly already lost. I don't see anything treasonous in that, but I don't see anything heroic in it either.