I placed bets that I thought it was going to be the Nigerian, Frances Arinze. First, he was conservative in the mold of John Paul II, and like it or not, the Church was not going to elect a progressive reformer that would begin to do away with the vow of celibacy, sexual dogma, and all-male priests.
Second, the Church is growing expondetially in the Southern Hemisphere, and this would be a nod in that direction.
Third, Cardinal Arinze was experienced in Inter-Faith relations and dialogue with the Jewish and Islamic faiths, which will be key in this new century.
And finally, Cardinal Arinze is an African, and the sight of a black Pope would be groundbreaking.
I also thought it would not be Ratzinger since he was the heavy favorite going into the Conclave, and there is an old saying: "If you go in a Pope, you come out a Cardinal."
Alas, I was wrong. Now we have Pope Benedict XVI. I congratulate him and wish him well. I ask for God's blessing upon him. Despite his hard line conservative stance on Catholic dogma, I hope he is rather progressive in dealing with the problems facing the Church.
The deposition started and ended rather quickly at 2:30. I hurried back to my office all the way in Center City. I was fearful as to what I would find here. I knew what the reaction would be: HE IS A NAZI, SO FUCK THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
And yeah, that is what I found here, not only from the more crazy among us, but from of the site's front page authors. I am disappointed to say the least. When the Pope died, most of us bashed his career and his opinions. We throttled the Catholic Church for its failings. And now that the new Pope has been elected, we are throttle anew. The whole Church has been painted with a swastika.
To be clear, Pope Benedict XVI was born in 1927. When he was five years old, the Nazi Party took power in Germany.
In his memoirs, Ratzinger wrote that he was enrolled in the Nazi youth movement against his will when he was 14 in 1941, when membership was compulsory. He said he was soon let out because of his studies for the priesthood.
Two years later he was drafted into a Nazi anti-aircraft unit as a helper, a common task for teenage boys too young to be soldiers. A year later he was released, only to be sent to the Austrian-Hungarian border to construct tank barriers.
He deserted the German army in April 1945, in the final weeks of the war in Europe, and returned to Traunstein -- a risky move, since deserters were shot on the spot if caught, or publicly hanged as examples to others.
When he arrived home, U.S. soldiers took him prisoner and held him in a POW camp for several weeks. Upon his release, he re-entered the seminary.
So based upon that, many of us here at Daily Kos have labeled him a Nazi. Ok. By that logic, Ronald Reagan is a Democrat for all time, since he was one by name only when he was actor. Hillary Clinton is a Republican for all time since she was a Goldwater Girl in 1964. Of course, some of you still thinks she is a Republican, but I digress.
Ratzinger was ordained, along with his brother, in 1951. He then spent several years teaching theology. In 1977, he was appointed bishop of Munich and elevated to cardinal three months later by Pope Paul VI.
In 1982, he was picked by John Paul II to head the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he has been controversial.
If you want to find areas of harsh disagreement with the new Pope, then this is where you should concentrate your efforts.
During last year's presidential election campaign, he wrote a letter advising American bishops to deny communion to politicians supporting abortion rights -- a move criticized by supporters of John F. Kerry, a Catholic. Ratzinger also cautioned Europe against admitting predominantly Muslim Turkey to the European Union on grounds that the continent is essentially Christian.
I profoundly disagree with the new Pope on his actions here and I will criticize him for it.
But the man is not a Nazi. The man was not a Nazi. And even if he was, don't you think he has more than atoned for it? His life in service to God? Nah, I suppose we Americans should have killed him back in 1945. I suppose that would have made us happy.
I cannot escape the realization that many here are either profoundly anti-Catholic or profoundly anti-religion, so much so that they must seek out and destroy religion. These people just don't disagree with the socially conservative policy. They disagree with the fact that people are Catholic.
Why else would they be so quick to call him a Nazi? Why else were they so quick to bash and attack the last Pope?
I don't know, but those are my thoughts today. Sometimes I think maybe Frist is right.
Now, some of you will come back at me and say that, no, we just disagree with the socially conservative stances on policy. That is why we criticized the Pope on the day of his death. That is why we criticize the new Pope. We also have problems with him having a past that collides in any way with the Nazi Germany during World War II. That is valid. But you will all have to come up with better ways to voice your criticism, less you open yourselves up to the anti-religious charges from the Republicans and other right wing groups that we have been hearing lately. You will all have to be more specific in your criticism, and stop painting with such a broad brush that even I have stains on my clothes. You need to be more judicious in choosing your words. The reason the conservatives and the Republicans rule us today is because they have been while you have not.
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