Seems that the new Popester Ratzinger (now “Benedict XVI”) was a member of the Hitler Youth (Papal hopeful is a former Hitler Youth). Of course, even more bothersome is that since 1981, his central role at the Vatican has been to head up the Holy Office of the Inquisition (yeah, that inquisition), which is in charge of suppressing heresy, maintaining and defending the integrity of the faith, and examining and proscribing errors and false doctrines. And, as the history shows, they did do some serious suppressing.
OK, as an obvious act of propaganda, the Holy Office of the Inquisition was renamed as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1908 by Pope Pius X. But a rose by any other name…
Hitler was all part of god’s plan; he works in mysterious ways…
I’m not sure these two facts about Ratzinger/Benedict are necessarily damning. If you go to the article about his being in the Hitler Youth, it is mentioned that at the time of his joining, in 1941, membership in Hitler Youth was mandatory. He also joined the army, but that was also mandatory. A dissenter is quoted as saying that it was possible to resist, as her brother did, but it also mentions that for his resistance her brother was sent to Dachau! So it seems premature to condemn Ratzinger for an action that at age 14 he undertook instead of being killed or sent to a prison camp. Also, it could very well be the case that the “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith” (formerly the Holy Office of the Inquisition) should not be conflated with the Inquisition as it is thought of in its infamy. None of us here have any sense what that office has been up to in Ratzinger’s lifetime. Just as the Republican Party at the time of Lincoln may not be the same party as it is today (and the same can be said for the Democrats), this holy office may have recently been a relatively benign entity.
There are other things to potentially impugn Ratzinger on, and perhaps it would be better to work back from those, such as his refusal to budge on contraception. Contrary to a previous comment about Ratzinger, I am sort of glad he is not a progressive pope, because I think it will help continue the marginalization and weakening of the status of Catholicism in America, a process begun by the priest sex abuse scandals. The dissolution of the church seems to be a good step in allowing more people to take individual responsibility for thinking and considering personal matters and actions, and if Ratzinger’s hardliner image hurts the church and thus helps this process, I am pleased that he has taken on the mantle. Realistically, I think it won’t matter much. The whole point of the papacy is that it is *by definition* correct, so you could probably throw a mitre on just about any silver-haired European oldster and people would do what they had to do to square it with their beliefs.
I’m with badger on this. The Hitler youth thing makes a good sound bite, but like most sound bites when put into context it loses virtually all of its sting. In any case, it’s not like we could expect a pope whose opinions are drastically different than John Pauls were- these guys were mostly appointed by him, and I doubt anyone with a really progressive social viewpoint could get much past parishoner status in the Catholic church. Regardless of who the cardinals chose, there was never going to be a shift on gays or condoms- millions of people will still be doomed to marginalization and aids, women will still be seen as mere baby-factories. If this pope’s overt intolerance weakens the church even a little, then he was really the best choice for humanity in general, the least of the available evils.
If you’re interested, there’s some good detail and commentary in this series of posts from Eric Muller (a Law Professor at U North Carolina): here, here, here and here.
I linked to this post on http://atheistrevolution.blogspot.com/
First, if you want to condemn Joey Ratz, this is a far better place to start:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1469055,00.html
You don’t need a sound bite to make this compelling.
Second, although I’m no longer Catholic, it’s not really fair to place the blame for the current Catholic doctrine on contraception fully on “the john pauls”. JP2 and Paul VI are to blame; Paul wrote it and JP2 followed it to its logical, if idiotic, conclusion. There’s good evidence that JP1 would have changed the doctrine if he had lived more than a month after his installation. As it was, poor old JP1 didn’t do much of anything.
[…] Didn’t take the Vatican long (under the leadership of Joey Ratzo, formerly head of the Office of the Inquisition) to shit on the late pope’s at least slightly pro-science and pro-evolution legacy. The NYTimes has an op-ed from Christoph Schönborn (”Finding Design in Nature“), the Roman Catholic cardinal archbishop of Vienna, twisting words from JP2’s past and trying to side with the forces of anti-science and anti-intellectualism. […]
How could you selfish people claim that god is Not real. Im only 12and i feel so angry about this. When you die then you’ll see what it means and takes to be a real christian!!.If you go to church and recieved the holy spirit then you would come to your sences!
If your mother said she was goin to buy you a present for your birthday. Not just a ordinary one, how could you tell if its true or not! But you believe her and have faith. Thats the same with god, we haven’t seen him or physically touched him, but we believe in him!!!
Through GOD wonderful things happen. At a church i attend there was a prayer request from a women who’s friend was diagnosed with a brain tuma. We all prayed, prayed very hard and a week later when the doctors did the test there was no sign of the brain tuma. Do you call that a Lucky chance or gods will. We believed we prayed and it got answered.!!!!
When th day comes, then you’ll truly see who’s right!!
[…] I have no idea. Joey Ratzo is a reactionary piece of shit. […]
I’m not a Catholic and so I don’t care about any of that.It’s fine if you want to point out this guy’s Hitler Youth twistedness.But what pisses me off is this “God is for Suckers” bullshit.
You probably don’t have the balls to post this.Is it because you are an anti-free-speech Nazi or Communist yourself?
I doubt you have the guts or honesty to post this.
Piss off,
We posted it, surprised? Of course we filter comments- if we didn’t, we wouldn’t be able to discuss anything with the number of asinine morons that come in here to “witness” or insult us. If you think free-speech isn’t somehow censored, go to the US Senate House floor during session and start screaming about how much our politians have “no balls” and they’re Nazis, and that they’re cocksuckers. Better yet, drop trou and take a dump on the floor.
Get the point, idiot? You have political free-speech (sometimes) in a public forum- this is a private forum, so eat shit xian freak.
sandra: I certainly hope you really are 12, because your writing already resembles that of an 7-year-old and speaks volumes about the current state of our educational system.
Pascal’s Wager, eh? There’s no proof of gawd, but in the end, you will be laughing and we will be burning in hell because we thought such a position was absolute bullshit?
Get this through your head: If gawd exists, and if he is so petty as to condemn me to an eternity of agony for not licking his allmighty boots (what would an omnipotent being need praise for? should be absolutely nothing, right? after all, he is omnipotent), then I want no part of him anyway. “Hell” couldn’t be any worse than hanging out inside the brain of a megsandra: I certainly hope you really are 12, because your writing already resembles that of an 7-year-old and speaks volumes about the current state of our educational system.
Pascal’s Wager, eh? There’s no proof of gawd, but in the end, you will be laughing and we will be burning in hell because we thought such a position was absolute bullshit?
Get this through your head: If gawd exists, and if he is so petty as to condemn me to an eternity of agony for not licking his almighty boots (what would an omnipotent being need praise for? should be absolutely nothing), then I want no part of him anyway. I mean, “Hell” couldn’t be any worse than hanging out inside the brain of a megalomaniac till the end of time.
Of course, none of this matters, thank goodness, since it is all bullshit.
[…] Joey Ratzo, former Hitler Youth member and the Vatican’s Prefect of Inquisition (see the earlier post, The new Pope: From Hitler youth to Prefect of Inquisition), has asked an excellent question (German-born pope laments Holocaust crimes : Pope Benedict XVI visited the Auschwitz concentration camp as “a son of the German people” Sunday and asked God why he remained silent during the “unprecedented mass crimes” of the Holocaust… “To speak in this place of horror, in this place where unprecedented mass crimes were committed against God and man, is almost impossible — and it is particularly difficult and troubling for a Christian, for a pope from Germany… In a place like this, words fail; in the end, there can be only a dread silence, a silence which itself is a heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?” […]
[…] Joey Ratzo, former Hitler Youth member and the Vatican’s Prefect of Inquisition, has asked an excellent question (German-born pope laments Holocaust crimes): Pope Benedict XVI visited the Auschwitz concentration camp as “a son of the German people” Sunday and asked God why he remained silent during the “unprecedented mass crimes” of the Holocaust… “To speak in this place of horror, in this place where unprecedented mass crimes were committed against God and man, is almost impossible — and it is particularly difficult and troubling for a Christian, for a pope from Germany… In a place like this, words fail; in the end, there can be only a dread silence, a silence which itself is a heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?” […]
Ron’s Blog / Good question, Joey says:
May 29th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
I would like to agree with Ron’s Blog. I must say I cannot understand why or how a former Hitlerjugend (however conscripted) should present himself at Auschwitz concentration camp as “a son of the German people”. Indeed, I have difficulty in trying to understand why a German would want to be Pope in the first place and why a Hitlerjugend would accept such a position. How does Benedict XVI reckon that he is the man for such a job?
From his inducted days inthe Nazis he has, I understand, led a life that has been totally institutionalised. Woman, by definition, is out of the question. Yet, we try to imagine him as a civilised man and a civilising man. But how can that be without the refining experiences of secular life. Religious life is such a false way of being, that for a man to say that homosexuals are ‘unnatural’ beats Banagher — the pot calling the kettle black!
I must admit that when it comes to Pope Benedict XVI my understandng of the world in which orndianry people interact fails me. I just can’t understand what power does to people!
Seamus Breathnach
www.irishcriminology.com
Recently the Germans were have supposed to have open up Nazi was records. It would be very interesting to be able see what the goose steppers had to say about any evaluation on the poopster, head inquisitor.