Quick googling implies that membership in Hitler Youth was mandatory at the time.

I assume that most Germans of a certain age can be described as being on the German side of the war.

Well, I'm taking "Nazi" to mean a member of the Nazi party. Or is the term generally used to describe all Germans who supported the war? (not being sarcastic)

Well, I'm taking "Nazi" to mean a member of the Nazi party. Or is the term generally used to describe all Germans who supported the war? (not being sarcastic)

Actually, I'm not disagreeing with you here, just hedging my bets as to exactly what he did that is offensive.

I'm not sure that any of that makes him a bad person, but you'd like to think that someone who is going to be a spiritual leader, arbiter of morality, & so on etc. would have a bit more courage in the face of evil, you know?

James Garfield. John was an actor in the forties. Someone took some shots at Truman, too.

That's what I get for not googling.

eta: And what everyone else said about the Hitler Youth. He had no choice.

Doesn't make him a good guy. He's opposed to liberation theology, and has warned pro-liberation theology priests against preaching the Gospel with "Marxist overtones."

In 1986 Ratzinger issued a letter to the Catholic Bishops in which he wrote that homosexuality was a tendency towards an intrinsic moral evil. A few years later, in 1992, he rejected the notion of human rights for gays, stressing that their civil liberties could be "legitimately limited."

So, okay. He went along with the crowd with the whole Hitler Youth thing. That was a long time ago. But what he's done recently is even scarier. The dude was, until today, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was formerly known as the Inquisition.

That's just....neat.

I'm not sure that any of that makes him a bad person, but you'd like to think that someone who is going to be a spiritual leader, arbiter of morality, & so on etc. would have a bit more courage in the face of evil, you know?

At 16?

I'm not going to harsh on him for his adolescence; it's the adult choices and the archconservativism that gets me.

a bit more courage in the face of evil, you know?

A bit more courage than what? Than complying with mandatory order?

I have no dog in this race, but he was 12 when the war started.

I don't think you can assume that he was a raging Nazi. *

[Eta, like Betsy I'm more concerned with his recent activities, which are bad enough.]

OTOH, the fact that membership was mandatory doesn't mean that he was in HY against his will, either.

I'd like to know more, and hopefully will be able to find it.

Doesn't make him a good guy.

Yeah, but it also doesn't make him a Nazi. There's the whole Godwin's law thing to watch out for, after all.