Ratzinger was a Hitler Youth

[rhino47]

I was of the mindset if ratzinger became pope thats the final straw.
I will NOT be part of a church that is headed by him.
He was a hitler youth.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1572667,00.html
The Sunday Times - World



April 17, 2005

Papal hopeful is a former Hitler Youth
Justin Sparks, Munich, John Follain and Christopher Morgan, Rome



THE wartime past of a leading German contender to succeed John Paul II may return to haunt him as cardinals begin voting in the Sistine Chapel tomorrow to choose a new leader for 1 billion Catholics.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, whose strong defence of Catholic orthodoxy has earned him a variety of sobriquets — including “the enforcer”, “the panzer cardinal” and “God’s rottweiler” — is expected to poll around 40 votes in the first ballot as conservatives rally behind him.






He is the very ugly face of the church.I have been having a very hard time over the past years staying a catholic.This is a very painful
break for me.
Tomorrow I am going to the rectory and withdrawing from the catholic church.
Unitarians are looking pretty good to me.

[PATRICK]

1. The Unitarian Church in Canada?

No sense in retreating because the leaders of any institution don't represent you and are failing at their jobs. A personal stand is stronger than the revered titled heads at any point in history.

It will take a lot more than disappointment with disappointing squatters in the fabled halls of power to make me personally change any of my commitments to America or my faith or my basic humanity. In the first Church the story details that the real spiritual movements could take place against, without, and despite the nominal successor and his conservative court.

A source of anger but not despair.

Of course I have met people who have left the Church at the first personal slight of single pastor. A single disappointment allowed them to just slip away indignantly- forever. OK. If it was that feeble why use the excuse? Probably some lingering fear.

The election was probably stacked this time. The second time around this group will hopefully do better- if the guy doesn't live to be 100. He doesn't look like the guy who will set a retirement precedent. There were staunch Conservative, more affable and pastoral who might have been far worse in long term stagnation effects.

But I share your pain in this one. Hitler Youth was new to me, but that that fact is small and insignificant shows how much more I know about this dogmatist that is far more dismaying.

[rhino47]

3. My break with the church has been a long time coming

It is that ratzinger is the final straw you might say.
I find there are many paths to god.I might as well take one that I truly believe in rather then one I am comfortable with.I totally
agree with your point of not letting a pastor get in the way of your worship.I have dealt with that with abrasive priests.Its the over all theology of the church and its doctrines I have issues with.
Ratzinger composed most of the writings I have issues with.I despise the anti gay teachings of the church.Abortion,birth control banned for countries that are already highly overpopulated is irresponsible.
The lists really do go on.
It deeply saddens me that this day has finally come.
I can not in the foreseeable future see the catholic church
and I on the same path.
The church has become more of a tradition rather then a belief.

[imenja]

2. Did you actually read the article?

"The son of a rural Bavarian police officer, Ratzinger was six when Hitler came to power in 1933. His father, also called Joseph, was an anti-Nazi whose attempts to rein in Hitler’s Brown Shirts forced the family to move home several times.

In 1937 Ratzinger’s father retired and the family moved to Traunstein, a staunchly Catholic town in Bavaria close to the Führer’s mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden. He joined the Hitler Youth aged 14, shortly after membership was made compulsory in 1941.

He quickly won a dispensation on account of his training at a seminary. “Ratzinger was only briefly a member of the Hitler Youth and not an enthusiastic one,” concluded John Allen, his biographer."

[rhino47]

4. Yes I did see that.

There is not so much he was a hilter youth as much as his adult life of hating gays.He has been especially hateful towards them.

[imenja]

8. can you support that with text?

Do you have a tract from a sermon of his that supports that point?

[Hobarticus]

9. THANK YOU for finally bringing up a valid concern about him!!!

All this horseshit about Hitler Youth...kee-rist, I think what the man says NOW is far more crucial than what he did as a teenager in the middle of war.

This guy's a shitty pick, and not for what everyone else is freaking out about.

[johnnie]

5. It was the law

[elperromagico]

6. His contention that Catholicism is the one true faith bothers me more

than his membership in the Hitler Youth 64 years ago when it was compulsory.

At the very least, he's close-minded.

[johnnie]

7. Every Catholic is supposed to believe that

That is part of their dogma. There would never be a Pope who didn't believe they are the one true religion.

[elperromagico]

11. Well, it's a crock of shit in any religion.

I am sick of hearing these men - and yes, they are men chosen by other men, not emissaries of God on earth - referred to as "our Pope" or "the world's Pope" or some other equally ludicrous title.

They are the Catholic Church's Popes. Judging by some of the sentiments expressed by Catholics on this board, they don't even seem to enjoy exclusivity within that group.

[imenja]

10. all organized religions believe that

That's my principal problem with them all. In practice, however, may Catholic priests say something quite different. Religion in practice is usually very different from pronouncements from Rome.