Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Ex-Nazi Named Bishop of Rome/Vicar of Christ
German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, an ex-member of the Hitler Youth, is elected Tuesday to succeed Pope John Paul II. (Read more from The Times of India)
Even the Germans are kind of embarrassed by this momentous gaffe on the part of the Catholic church.
Sploid wraps up the rest of the reaction to this unbelievable turn of events better than me though:
"Gay Catholics are furious, Latin Americans are outraged, Liberal Catholics are livid, Jews are nervous, and the Nazi story is getting uglier...."
The MSM is giving old boy a pass by assiduoulsy avoiding or only briefly mentioning his membership in the Hitler Youth movement or excusing it as compulsory service that all German youth had to fulfill but, as it's been pointed out, not everyone joined up - "some had the guts and moral conviction to fight back."
And as I posted on J Smooth's site: this dude is carrying so much baggage, as is the Catholic church as a whole, but the College of Cardinals still decides that this is the best possible way to go as far as picking the next Pope? Like there was absolutely nobody else they could have possibly picked who could rep' church doctrine and policy as it stands without having a pesky Nazi Youth entry on their resume?! That much I could have lived with even if I disagree with it, but this dude is just too much and his selection is emblematic of the reason I've been a very lapsed Catholic for most of my adult life. Frankly though it's a stance, in response to boneheaded decisions like this and dogmatic, inflexible positions taken by the church, that I feel less and less guilty about with each passing day.
