[Hitler Knew the Devil]
There are reliable reports by eyewitnesses that suggest he had some kind of demonic encounters,” the future Pope said of Hitler. “He would say, trembling: ‘He was there again,’ and other such things. We cannot get to the bottom of it. I believe one can see that he was taken into the demonic realm in some profound way, by the way in which he was able to wield power and by the terror, the harm, that his power inflicted.
31 comments
I slightly doubt he said this, just as I doubt that Joseph Ratzinger, only a teenager, personally knew the Fuehrer.
It amazes me that these meatheads(dead from the neck up) always spout off about Hitler yet know so very little about him. As a point I offer this, when Adolf was a youngster he was so obsessed with being a catholic that he would always perform a "mass" for all his lil friends before he would play with them. Doesnt sound very atheistic to me.
Ratzi, ol' boy, you can't just put all the bad stuff down to de debbil. You're going to have to face it, Papa: some folks is wicked, all by demselves.
"We cannot get to the bottom of it."
Benny propounds a favorite Church line, "If I can't assure a result we will like, I will deny that any result is possible." It has served them so well over the centuries.
"I believe one can see that he was taken into the demonic realm in some profound way, by the way in which he was able to wield power and by the terror, the harm, that his power inflicted."
Do Catholics still believe the Pope to be infallible? If so, isn't Benny saying that he CAN get to the bottom of it and that Hitler WAS possessed?
Or the brain damage from siphylis was kicking in.
That'd be my guess.
From what I understand of military history, Hitler was increasingly detatched from reality near the final days of the war, so much so that he still thought Germany was winning the war up until the time Russia came knocking.
Hitler's top officers even coined the term "Wolkukocklandt" (Cloud Cuckoo Land) to describe his mental state.
BTW, it never said that Ratzinger personally knew Hitler; it sounds like he's talking about reports from people who *did* know Hitler.
It's frightening to believe that a human being could be as terrible as Hitler, but that's the reality we have to face. Blaming his crimes on a mythical spirit is worse than useless--it negates the lessons we have to learn from this terrible example so it doesn't happen again. Saying "the Devil did it!" might comfort us in the short run, but it will harm us in the long run.
Looking at the way things are in history, I think it infinitely more likely that Hitler went to Heaven and got his orders from the big man upstairs.
Of course I think it even liklier still that he was completely deranged, but if we are invoking supernatural stuff to explain it, I'm laying the blame squarely at God's feet.
Pope Ratzi: Hitler was one of yours. Accept it. Stop trying to absolve yourself and your company of blame by inventing mythical spirits who are "actually" responsible for his crimes. Sure, it's a couple decades too late, but you can at least apologize for your company's refusal to fire him.
Alex: Tone of voice doesn't travel well over the Internet, and your short post does not provide much context, so I can't tell if you're serious or not. If you're sarcastic, please ignore this.
Pope Ratzi is most assuredly not a good man. The "Pope" is essentially the CEO of the Catholic Church, a giant multinational corporation which doesn't really produce anything useful but makes money by convincing people it does. It's the oldest and most successful company in the scam industry. As CEO, Ratzinger is at least partly responsible for the deaths in Africa caused by STDs since he works to prevent the use of protection to combat them. He's also extremely misogynistic, telling thousands of gullible followers, convinced of his authority, that women are not entitled to control their own bodies; his followers, acting in response to his beliefs, tried to prevent doctors from performing an abortion on an 11-year-old girl who had been raped. Not what I'd call a nice guy.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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