April/2005: World Events - It takes a lot to stir me from apathetic atheism (Self-coined: Apatheism) since I really could not care about much of anything that has to be with religion. Someone asked me in IM if I was going to comment on the Pope's passing on my blog. Hell no. Why would I care? Old people who own silly hats die each and every day. The only thing mildly interesting about the Pope's death was the simple fact that it was the first Pope to die during my life. Curiousity necessitated watching much of the coverage just to see how over-the-top the media laid into it. I was not disappointed. Or I was. Depends on how you look at it.
The only positive thing I could say about John Paul the 2nd is that he was at least a man who knew suffering and who understood tyranny. You have to respect those who suffered during World War 2 and those who fought against dictatorships. Those who fought for the freedom and lives of others. World War 2 is filled with thousands of stories of average people, good people, rising up to help others in those dark years. So John Paul the 2nd deserved respect for that. At least he had that in his corner to try to offset his hard-line nature on various Catholic issues, such as the disavowal of married priests, female priests, etc, etc. Positions that directly led to the pedophile scandals that hit the church here in America. He was hard to hate due to his World War 2 history. I was quite content to ignore anything and everything he said.

Pretty much exactly how I want it always to be.

Then they had to go elect the new Pope.

Fuck.


Look at this creepy, evil fucker
The new Pope is like "new Coke." Crap. Pure and total crap. As stated, the one thing JP-2 had going for him was that he knew oppression. He lived through the darkest ages. He was, as a youth, an enslaved worker for the Germans. He saw massive upheaval. His neighborhood was heavily Jewish. Not so after the war. He saw friends die and friends suffer. He knew the danger of totalitarian regimes. As Pope, he moved the church away from heavy socialistic regimes and was far warmer to Capitalism than previous pontiffs. Quite the change from Pope's like Pius the Tenth and others who helped fascism thrive with their position of nothing. Those qualities are not found in the "New Pope."

Joseph Ratzinger is not fit to be Pope. He is a disgusting man. Unlike JP-2, he did not know oppression. He was an oppressor. We literally went from a Pope who was downtrodden to a Pope that did the downtrodding. Sound harsh? Probably. But is it true? Definitely.

Ratzinger joined the Hitler Youth in 1941. While joining was compulsorary, you did not see Ratzinger and his family fleeing Germany at the time. Ratzinger was a member of the Hitler Youth for two years, until he was sixteen. Once sixteen, he was drafted into the German army. Again, you did not see the Ratzinger's resist or flee. Joseph was a good little Nazi, working as an anti-aircraft gunner to protect airplane engine factories. The workforce of this factory? Concentration camp slaves from Dachau. Yeah, that Dachau. How many allied planes did he fire upon? How many rounds did he discharge into the air from his anti-aircraft battery? We'll never know, really. Did he kill allied pilots seeking to liberate Europe from the scourge of the Nazi menace? Again, we'll never know. He was later sent closer to the front lines in Hungary. There, he set up tank traps and was in close proximity to Hungarian Jews, whom were herded away into train cars to be fed into the cess-pool that was inner Nazi Germany. All through 1943, Ratzinger was a soldier in good standing with the German army. Coincidentally, 1943 saw a massive reversal of fortune across all fronts.

By 1944, Germany was retreating and the war was lost. The losses mounted. Morale in the German army plummeted. Suddenly, the Ubermensch weren't so "uber" anymore. In January of '44, Soviet troops are already as close as Poland, entering into that country at this point. Soviet advances across the entire Eastern front scare the shit out of the Germans, knowing what sort of beasts the Russians are. It is only at this point, April of 1944, when plain-thinking Germans would know the war was lost... that Joesph Ratzinger deserted. It is only once the war was lost that Ratzinger left the German army. A smart move, really, since sticking it out meant certain death. However, the timing is less than "divine."

Ratzinger did not desert when confronted with slaves from a concentration camp. He didn't desert when he saw Jews being persecuted in Hungary. He did not desert rather than fire rounds at allied planes. He only deserted once he felt his life was in mortal danger. He spent well over a year in the army of Nazi Germany. Over a full year wearing the Swastika and making war. While Ratzinger insists that he never fired a shot and was "compulsed", you have to look at the situation logically. What do you do when you man an anti-aircraft gun guarding a sensitive factory? You fire it at allied planes. True, he may not have fired his personal firearm, but he fired far more than that with possible deadly consequences.

Ratzinger also goes on to claim that he was opposed to the regime, but to show that opposition would have meant "certain death." This is commonly known as the "Nuremberg Defense." It didn't really work there, and it shouldn't work in the case of Ratzinger. Not only because it's a false defense, but that he DID show opposition to the regime. Not ideologically, but in the form of desertion. Deserting the German army was no small deal. It could've meant death in 1943 or in 1944. However, he did not desert before manning anti-aircraft guns or before herding around slaves and Jews, he deserted only when he knew the German war effort had lost. That is not an ideological desertion, that is a desertion of convenience. Ratzinger did not leave the German army because he was opposed to the German army... had he done so, he would have deserved a full year earlier. He only left the German army when the risks of staying outweighed the positives. Cowardice, not bravery.

Besides, many Germans did oppose the regime. The German underground was in play even during times of strength... and definitely during times of weakness. Besides, I'm not expecting Ratzinger to have had the bravery of say a, Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, who made the best attempt on Hitler's life... we're simply expecting Ratzinger to be a man who did more than "Follow orders" until such time that he felt his own life was in danger. We did not excuse other Nazi's who used the "following orders" excuse... why should we excuse a man who is now Pope?

Perhaps my outrage is even more personalized due to the flack I have received for naming the website after my personal hero, John Rabe. As written elsewhere in these pages, during WW2 a businessman named John Rabe saved a couple hundred thousand Chinese from Japanese atrocity by nearly force of will alone. That, and a handy habit of shoving his swastika in various Japanese faces to try to get protection for his beloved Chinese of Nanking. Rabe had never been to Nazi Germany, only joining the party once it became compulsorary. Besides, his only real knowledge of what was occuring in his homeland was via German news reports... not exactly the most reliable. Upon his return to Germany after being recalled by Siemens, Rabe mistakenly thought the Nazi leadership would care about the plight of the massacred. He showed films of Japanese atrocity in Berlin and wrote to Hitler of the acts. These attempts met Rabe with the Gestapo, who beat him and confiscated his films. Under threat of death, Rabe was stuck in Berlin. An enemy in the eyes of the Nazi regime. The beatings combined with the stress of watching Japanese, and soon, Russian atrocities ended Rabe's life early. He died shortly after the war. Unlike the new Nazi Pope, he did not goosestep. John Rabe paid the price for this. I have paid the "price" for my admiration of Rabe. I was openly libeled as a Nazi myself due to my recognition of Rabe's greatness by a Kansas City tabloid newspaper. I was then asked by Al Roker during a CourtTV interview if I, yes, myself... was a Nazi. And why? Because I was learned about history and find a hero in a man who was only a Nazi in name, but not in act.

Meanwhile, nobody is calling a billion Catholics "nazi's" when there is far greater justification to do so! If Ratzinger is now the voice of god on Earth, then the voice of god on Earth is speaking through a former active Nazi. When I'm grouped as a Nazi due to the poorly-termed "worship" of a great dead man who opposed tyranny and massacre of all flavor, yet Catholics are not while literally worshipping a man who was in league with those actual devils, I must remark that the world is a very fucked up place indeed. It is an intellectual crime that this man is now Pope. It is an intellectual crime that few have looked with discerning eye upon his wartime record. He has lied when he states that he did not fire a shot. You do not sit in an anti-aircraft gun for months on end without firing bursts at allied planes. That is bullshit. He is a liar when he says he deserted the German army in opposition to their ideology. He served over a year without doing so. He is a liar when he says that he could not take any other route. The new Pope is nothing more than a lying Nazi dirtbag.

The pious among you may be thinking that I'm being overly harsh. That this man, or any ex-Nazi, can turn over a good leaf. That his acts and statements since the war should be taken into account. I welcome that thought process. Because taking his after-WW2 activites in scope with the fact that he was/is a Nazi simply paints a picture that is all the more frightening. In 1987, Ratzinger declared that Jewish teachings and scripture only reach fulfillment when they accept Christ as their lord and savior. That is anti-semitism. That is a religious proclamation attacking Judaism. Perhaps it would be forgiveable done by someone other than a man who served willingly in the Nazi army. He has claimed that homosexuals - another Nazi target for extermination - suffered from an "objective disorder." Terminology not that different from how Hitler viewed gays after ascending to power and creating the Third Reich. His nickname as the "Panzer Cardinal" has been earned due to his force of nature and uncompromising hatred of those who walk a different path from Catholics. That is the mentality of Joseph Ratzinger, now known as Pope Benedict the Sixteenth.

A mentality not that different from the one commonly held in Germany, 1943.