Should We Be Mourning The Nazi Homophobic Pope?

Adebayo Adeniran
4 min readJan 2, 2023

Just asking…

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Not unless you’d slept the entire day yesterday and awoke a few hours ago, you’d be aware of the demise of the retired pope — Joseph Ratzinger — known officially as Pope Benedict XVI.

For a guy who had resigned the papacy nearly ten years ago over issues surrounding his health, it is somewhat surprising that he went on to live for as long as he did.

And it must be pointed out that when Pope Francis contracted Covid back in 2020, there was the danger that the retired pontiff will outlive his successor and live to see another pope appointed.

But all that’s been laid to rest with yesterday’s news.

The Pope Emeritus has gone now and the 1st Latin American pope does not have to worry about sharing the most exalted position in Christendom with the former youth Nazi.

Joseph Ratzinger, a former youth Nazi?

Yes he was.

As a young man, the pope emeritus was forced to join Hitler Youth and did serve in the army during the war.

It was often said that his family opposed Nazism and fascism and that our man sought to escape the very minute that it became possible to do so.

--

--

Adebayo Adeniran

A lifelong bibliophile, who seeks to unleash his energy on as many subjects as possible