Papal hopeful is a former Hitler Youth (edit--this was ORIGINALLY posted by Stephanie V, this is a copy and paste theft post by i--welles) Papal hopeful is a former Hitler Youth April 17, 2005 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.
Although far short of the requisite two-thirds majority of the 115 votes, this would almost certainly give Ratzinger, 78 yesterday, an early lead in the voting. Liberals have yet to settle on a rival candidate who could come close to his tally.
Unknown to many members of the church, however, Ratzinger's past includes brief membership of the Hitler Youth movement and wartime service with a German army anti- aircraft unit.
Although there is no suggestion that he was involved in any atrocities, his service may be contrasted by opponents with the attitude of John Paul II, who took part in anti-Nazi theatre performances in his native Poland and in 1986 became the first pope to visit Rome's synagogue.
"John Paul was hugely appreciated for what he did for and with the Jewish people," said Lord Janner, head of the Holocaust Education Trust, who is due to attend ceremonies today to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
"If they were to appoint someone who was on the other side in the war, he would start at a disadvantage, although it wouldn't mean in the long run he wouldn't be equally understanding of the concerns of the Jewish world."
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.
Two years later Ratzinger was enrolled in an anti-aircraft unit that protected a BMW factory making aircraft engines. The workforce included slaves from Dachau concentration camp.
Ratzinger has insisted he never took part in combat or fired a shot -- adding that his gun was not even loaded -- because of a badly infected finger. He was sent to Hungary, where he set up tank traps and saw Jews being herded to death camps. He deserted in April 1944 and spent a few weeks in a prisoner of war camp.
He has since said that although he was opposed to the Nazi regime, any open resistance would have been futile -- comments echoed this weekend by his elder brother Georg, a retired priest ordained along with the cardinal in 1951.
"Resistance was truly impossible," Georg Ratzinger said. "Before we were conscripted, one of our teachers said we should fight and become heroic Nazis and another told us not to worry as only one soldier in a thousand was killed. But neither of us ever used a rifle against the enemy."
Some locals in Traunstein, like Elizabeth Lohner, 84, whose brother-in-law was sent to Dachau as a conscientious objector, dismiss such suggestions. "It was possible to resist, and those people set an example for others," she said. "The Ratzingers were young and had made a different choice."
In 1937 another family a few hundred yards away in Traunstein hid Hans Braxenthaler, a local resistance fighter. SS troops repeatedly searched homes in the area looking for the fugitive and his fellow conspirators.
"When he was betrayed and the Nazis came for him, Braxenthaler shot himself because he knew he couldn't escape," said Frieda Meyer, 82, Ratzinger's neighbour and childhood friend. "Even though they had tortured him in Dachau concentration camp he refused to give up his resistance efforts."
Despite question marks over Ratzinger's wartime conduct, the main obstacle to his prospects in the conclave -- the assembly of cardinals to elect the new pope -- is the conservative stance he has adopted as guardian of Catholic orthodoxy since John Paul named him to head the congregation for the doctrine of the faith in 1981.
His condemnations are legion -- of women priests, married priests, dissident theologians and homosexuals, whom he has declared to be suffering from an "objective disorder".
He upset many Jews with a statement in 1987 that Jewish history and scripture reach fulfilment only in Christ -- a position denounced by critics as "theological anti-semitism". He made more enemies among other religions in 2000, when he signed a document, Dominus Jesus, in which he argued: "Only in the Catholic church is there eternal salvation".
Some of his staunchest critics are in Germany. A recent poll in Der Spiegel, the news magazine, showed opponents of a Ratzinger papacy outnumbered supporters by 36% to 29%.
As one western cardinal who was in two minds about him put it: "He would probably be a great pope, but I have no idea how I would explain his election back home."
One liberal theologian,when asked what he thought of a Ratzinger papacy, was more direct: "It fills me with horror."
ROME - Pope Benedict XVI reiterates his skepticism on Turkey's European Union membership in his first book published since his inauguration.
Former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's views are set down in "The Europe of Benedict, in the crisis of cultures," which was presented in a ceremony Tuesday. The 152-page book, sections of which were made available to the press, contains material first written in 1992 and updated as recently as early this year, shortly before Benedict's election to the papacy, according to the Cantagalli publishing house.
According to Italian news agency Apcom, the pope invites people to rethink Turkey's EU membership. The pope described Turkey's position by saying, "Turkey is a state affected by Islamic culture, and it lacks Christian roots."
"Ataturk tried to change Turkey into a secular state in order to adopt the Christian secularism found in Europe," the pope said, adding, "European identity can only be determined by the norms and content of the similar enlightened cultures. All the states that can adopt these criteria could be European."
Last August, while still a cardinal, Ratzinger said in an interview, "Turkey always represented another continent throughout history, in permanent contrast with Europe," so to equate the two continents "would be a mistake."
Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia to join Moscow Patriarchate
Notes:
It's a goal that has eluded Christianity for nearly 1,000 years: mending the rifts between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. Pope Benedict XVI has already declared a "fundamental commitment" to heal the divide, and this week will engage in an indirect round of talks with Russian Orthodox churchmen.
In spiritual terms, it's an epic invitation to repair the broken foundation of the faith, at a time when the European Union is erasing the last Cold War separations and some Christian leaders appeal for greater cooperation to challenge the rise of militant Islam. http://washtimes.com/world/20050611-112100-9508r.htm
Now that John Paul II has been buried, Catholic voices, lead by Benedict, are sounding the alarm about the coming Islamicization of Europe. #msg-6089283
To this end Pope Benedict XVI reiterates his skepticism on Muslim Turkey's European Union membership in his first book published since his inauguration. "Turkey is a state affected by Islamic culture, and it lacks Christian roots." #msg-6775311
Another very important aspect of this unification movement which has been left out of the Washington Times article is that Putin is consolidating the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia with the Moscow Patriarchate.
The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) is set to join the Moscow Patriarchate as a self-governed branch, similar to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
This looks to be an attempted unification of an unprecedented nature of Christians set against Muslims.
-Am
Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia to join Moscow Patriarchate 12:59
MOSCOW, June 21 (RIA Novosti, Olga Lipich) - The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) is set to join the Moscow Patriarchate as a self-governed branch, similar to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The union was envisaged by a draft act on canonical communication, which was published Tuesday on the official Web sites of the foreign ties department of the Moscow Patriarchate and ROCOR, along with other documents adopted by the cross commissions for the bilateral dialogue.
"These documents cover the key issues that ROCOR considered to be major obstacles on the way to a full dialogue," said Protopope Nikolai Balashov, the secretary for Orthodox ties of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Under the draft act, ROCOR will retain independence in terms of organization, but will still become part of the Moscow Partriarchate. By way of example, he cited the Ukrainian, Latvian, Moldovan and Estonian Orthodox Churches, all branches of the Moscow Patriarchate.
According to the draft act, "ROCOR is independent in terms of pastoral, enlightening, administrative, economic, property and secular issues."
The document also states that ROCOR bishops are members of the Local and Bishop Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, and can participate in the Holy Synod sessions. ROCOR will also receive its holy oil from the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The cross commissions for dialogue between the Moscow Patriarchate and ROCOR were established in December 2003. Metropolitan Laurus, the ROCOR Protohierarch, visited Russia in May 2004. Then the sides decided to begin the work of the commissions, and determined the range of issues to be discussed.
Since then, four joint sessions have been held.
"We are hopeful that the commissions will finish their work before the all-Foreign Council next May," Balashov said.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
