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Both John Paul II and his successor were forged by the horrors of World War II and advanced in the church in the shadow of the Iron Curtain. They also shared a deep drive to try to use Christianity as a grand unifier for the continent following the collapse of the Berlin Wall. But the Polish pontiff came from a nation that suffered greatly during the war. Ratzinger — like many from his generation — carries the burdens and ghosts of Germany’s past. Raised in the oak forest and pine foothills of Bavaria, he said he was enrolled in Hitler’s Nazi youth movement against his will. At the same time, the policeman’s son entered seminary studies in 1939 as a 12-year-old with “joy and great expectations,” according to his memoirs. He recalled being deeply moved by the rituals of the church, such as candlelight services and midnight Mass. Priesthood saved pope from SS But in 1943, he was drafted as an assistant to a Nazi anti-aircraft unit in Munich. Later, he was shipped off to build tank barriers at the Austian-Hungarian border. He wrote that he escaped recruitment by the dreaded SS because he and others said they were training to be priests. “We were sent out with mockery and verbal abuse,” he wrote. “But these insults tasted wonderful because they freed us from the threat of that deceitful ‘voluntary service’ and all its consequences.” He deserted in April 1945 and returned home to Traunstein. It was a risky move, since deserters were shot or hanged. But the Third Reich was collapsing.
“The Americans finally arrived in our village,” he wrote. “Even though our house lacked all comfort, they chose it as their headquarters.” Ratzinger was identified as a deserter and placed in prisoner of war camp near Ulm in southern Germany. He wrote that he could see the spires of the city’s cathedral in the distance. “It was, for me, like a consoling proclamation of the indescribable humaneness of faith,” he wrote. He and his older brother, Georg, were ordained in 1951. He taught theology and earned a reputation as a forward-looking prelate and took part in the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council, a major attempt to modernize the faith. His doctoral dissertation on the medieval theologian St. Bonaventure tried to draw attention to “dangerous relativism” — a message that he echoed at Mass on Monday. He also tried to combine his belief in Christianity’s ecumenical message with his views on the special role of Judaism. A theologian and an intellectual “That the Jews are connected with God in a special way and that God does not want that bond to fail is entirely obvious,” he wrote in his book, “God and the World,” published in 2000. “We wait for the instant in which Israel will say ‘yes’ to Christ, but we know that it has a special mission in history now.”
“First and foremost, he’s a theologian. He’s an intellectual,” said the Rev. Martin Bialas, who has known Ratzinger for 35 years and was his student. “By nature, he’s someone who prefers to stay in the background.” In 1977, Ratzinger was appointed bishop of Munich and elevated to cardinal three months later by Pope Paul VI. He was one of only two cardinals in the latest conclave that was not chosen by John Paul. The name he took — Benedict — draws a connection to Benedict XV, the Italian pontiff from 1914 to 1922 who had the difficult task of providing leadership for Catholic countries on opposite sides of World War I. His declared neutrality, and his repeated protests against weapons like poison gas angered both sides. For reformers, 'enormous disappointment' Benedict was also known for reaching out to Muslims and for efforts to close the nearly 1,000-year estrangement with Christian Orthodox churches — a possible signal that this could be an important priority of the new papacy. “The name Benedict XVI leaves the possibility open for a more moderate policy,” said the Swiss theologian Hans Kueng, whose license to teach theology was revoked by the Vatican in 1979. “Let us, therefore, give him a chance. As with the president of the USA, we should allow a new pope 100 days to learn.” But Kueng already has formed his judgment: “An enormous disappointment for all those who hoped for a reformist and pastoral pope.” His first major test could be in August in his homeland. World Youth Day — a favorite event of John Paul — is scheduled in the city of Cologne and is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of young Catholics. “Pope John Paul II always said that we must have a new beginning, a new evangelization of Europe that will plant the seeds of belief in the hearts of people again,” said Philip Hockerts, spokesman for the Regensburg diocese in southern Germany. “It could well be that (Benedict XVI) wants to carry forth this new evangelizing.”
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