April 19, 2005
Meet the New Pope
He was a member of the Hitler Youth, manned an antiaircraft battery for the German army, and spent time as a POW after the fall of the Nazis. He said that he had no option but to be a Nazi, but a hell of a lot of Germans managed just fine. But, he was just 14, and youthful indiscretions can be forgiven, although the last guy managed to be anti-Nazi. (More info on the Hitler Youth thing that makes him sound better.)
But this guy helped stamp out liberation theology and spearheaded the Catholic Church's whitewashing of the priestly pedophilia scandal. This sounds like a step backward for the church.
Posted by mike, April 19, 2005 4:17 PMA step backward, yes, I totally agree. He's insanely conservative and a real foe of ecumenism.
But not sure I can really blame him for the Hitler Youth thing. Also, didn't he turn himself in to an American POW camp in order to escape the German army? Not sure about the facts on that...
Whatever; I'm just glad to not be Catholic anymore. :)
Posted by: Amy at April 19, 2005 4:58 PMHmm...step back. Yeah, you could say that. As a practicing Catholic, I am very disappointed. Pope John Paul did a lot to bring the Church into the 21st century while still holding onto his traditionalist beliefs. This guy seems adamantly determined to send it right back to the Middle Ages. Maybe I'm exaggerating here, but I'm not real hopeful for the future of the Church.
Posted by: Kris at April 19, 2005 8:28 PMIt's not that I think he's going to start goose-stepping around the Vatican or tell all the cardinals to wear brown shirts or anything. I just think that, given the Catholic Church's regrettable history when it comes to Nazism, the fact that he was in the Hitler Youth should have probably ruled him out. It's not exactly going to improve Catholic relations with, say, the Jews to protest, "he was just a kid!"
It's sort of like, in the United States, I don't think anybody who was ever a member of the KKK should get elected president. Sure, he might have been really young, and he might have totally renounced his ways. But he shouldn't be president, because it would send a really bad message. There's always going to be that taint, that knowledge that this guy once burned crosses on black people's lawns.
Posted by: mike at April 19, 2005 9:24 PMI think it shows that not only one person, but an entire country can be redeemed even in the face of a horrible past. While I think he's a poor choice for Pope (but a perfect one for many Catholics from what I've been reading) I'm happy for the German people. They've been living under the black cloud of their past long enough. This is a very positive thing for them.
Posted by: Shawn at April 19, 2005 10:22 PMI don't care about the Hitler Youth thing. What bothers me is that the new pope wants to reach out... and yet he has these really conservative views on women's issues. I just don't think that by picking a German conservative that they are going to do much in the area of "reaching out." And he is anti-ROCK AND ROLL! NOOO!!!!! :-P
Still, he'll be dead in less than a decade probably, so we won't have to put up with him long. I think that picking an old white dude was a dumb idea regardless.
Posted by: shane at April 20, 2005 8:07 AMMany people say he's basically been running the church for John Paul for awhile anyway.
I find it amusing--cardinals older than 80 aren't allowed to vote for the pope, yet someone who's 78 just became pope. huh.
Posted by: Amy at April 20, 2005 9:36 AMApparently he was the one who wrote the document last year saying that the church should not give communion to any politician who is pro-choice, pro-euthanasia, pro-gay marriage. No mention of pro-war. Oh boy.
(I did not know this until five minutes ago.)