The estimable Uwe Siemon-Netto, the UPI religion editor and a Lutheran, comes to the defense of Pope Benedict against scurrilous charges that he is a “Nazi pope.” The sobriquet is not just offensive to the pope and to Catholics, but to all Germans who had to endure the Nazi stigma for 60 years. The garbage spouted by crackpot bloggers and mainstream pundits alike is no less than expected, I suppose, but evinces a more widespread anti-Germanism that has not abated through the years, as Siemon-Netto points out.
Before Ratzinger’s elevation to the papacy, the worst outburst of Germanophobia in the United States occurred on July 25, 2000, when an Air France Concorde crashed in Paris, killing more than 100 passengers, mainly German tourists. Jubilant messages celebrating the “German barbecue” filled America Online’s chat rooms. When this correspondent protested to AOL he received no reply, and the abuse was not stopped.
The irony is that Jewish groups (other than the most liberal ones) recognize that Pope Benedict is a friend of Jews, not an enemy.
The Jerusalem Post newspaper cleared him of any culpability and ridiculed those who suggest that pope Benedict was a closet Nazi. It mocked people accusing him of being a “theological anti-Semite for believing in Jesus so strongly that—gasp!—he thinks anyone, even Jews, should accept him as the Messiah.” Added the Post, “To all this we should say, ‘This is news?’”
Responding to the accusations that Benefict is a Nazi pope, the ADL leaps to his defense.
“We reject that outright,” ADL spokeswoman Mryna Shinebaum told UPI. Her national director, Abraham H. Foxman, had welcomed Ratzinger’s election. ” Cardinal Ratzinger has great sensitivity to Jewish history and the Holocaust. He has shown this sensitivity countless times,” Foxman stated.
Recall that Foxman is no shrinking violet when it comes to perceived insults to Judaism. He was the most shrill Jewish critic of The Passion of the Christ when it came out.
But it was the New York Times that took the cake as the most prominent publication to give space for the Nazi pope accusation. The newspaper posted a letter in its Readers’ Opinion section that used the term.
“This calls for another insulin shot,” fumed Baroni, [former editor and publisher of an American German-language newspaper]. “It would clearly be abusive if you labeled a black man with the ‘N word,’” he said. “But in the Times’ mindset there’s evidently nothing defamatory about calling a German pope a Nazi—in other words a member of a species guilty of a genocide.”
You might want to be more informed before you rant. I am sure that they were referring to the fact that he was a member of the Hitler Youth Corps.
And you might want to be more informed before you spread half-truths. Every German boy was required to join the hitler Youth Corps. Even so, young Joseph was refusing to join even under the threat of penalty, but a teacher signed him up to save him from punishment. He was eventually able to renounce his membership after he entered the seminary.
In fact, his father was such a noted anti-Nazi that the family had to move several times to avoid being arrested by the Gestapo (or whatever they were called at the time of the persecution).
12 million young men were forced to join the Hitler Youth. If they didn’t their parents would suffer, including having to pay fines starting at more than one month’s pay. Does that make them all Nazis? You paint with a mighty broad brush, but based on your other comments on this site, that doesn’t surprise me.
You’ve revealed yourself after all. You’re not a Catholic upset at the Scandal as you’ve pretended to be. You are just a thinly veiled anti-Catholic looking for any opportunity to bash the Church. Well, that opportunity is ended now.
Dom,
I can’t beleive the way that you personally attacked ironman for his statement. He did NOT say that the pope chose to join. He does not mention choice or no choice at all. All that he did state is a fact.
One other fact that should be included in your personal attack on a human being without cause, is OPERATION ODESSA. If you look in history you will see that operation ODESSA was an underground railroad for nazi’s wanted for war crimes. Alot of the war criminals fled Germany through the help of the Vatican. They were also helped in changing their identity and placement in South America. There is proof of this in history books. If you don’t like to read, it has also been on the History Channel.
By stating a fact does reveal that someone is Anti-Catholic. All that it shows is that maybe someone is knowledgable about facts or parts of history. Stating historical facts should not be considered bashing.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
Jennifer,
Before you go accusing me of things, perhaps you should be better informed about the history of ironman on this blog. He has engaged in personal attacks on me and against the Church in several threads. I guess if you only read the one statement and my reply it might look over the top.
See, you don’t even know me, but you engage in personal and insulting remarks about me, like insinuating that I don’t read.
Operation Odessa is a dud, a false claim against the Church. That something is published in a history book does not make it a fact or proof.
Besides, what does Operation Odessa have to do with Pope Benedict? At the time that Operation Odessa was supposedly taking place, young Joseph Ratzinger was 17 years old and deserting from his Germany military unit and then being held briefly in a POW camp. I hardly think it’s relevant, unless you’re trying to say that the Catholic Church is complicit in the Nazi atrocities.
I have read several of Ironman’s post and they show that he is open minded. I have noticed that you have insulted him several times, including twisting around what he was trying to say. Do you eliminate everybody that you do not agre with or does not share your opinion? That is exactly what the nazi’s tried to do. Sometimes history does repeat itself.
All that I am stating are facts. I suppose you don’t believe all the photos of the catholic church leaders posing with nazi leaders that were taken during world war 2. Let’s face it, throughout history the catholic church has had a checkered past.
I don’t know what history you have been follwing but “Operation Odessa” did exist.
Before you claim that I am not informed. I am a teacher with a degree in history..
You’re kidding, right? Open minded? Then you accuse me of being a Nazi?
I don’t hold conversations with people who accuse me of being a Nazi or like the Nazis. The conversation is ended.
Oh, and I’m not impressed by history degrees. I’ve read too many very badly researched books by people with history degrees.
Methinks that Jennifer and ironman are connected in some way. The anti-Catholics can join each other in Bettnet exile.
Oh this is too rich. They’re not just connected in some way. They are the SAME person. Jennifer/ironman, I’m not slouch when it comes to the Internet. I can backtrace you and see you’re using the same Internet connection.
Not falling for it.
Lying and deceit. Just what I’d expect from anti-Catholics.