Musings on Nazism, God, and the Pope

[Prudence]

Originally Posted by €uroMeinke

This may be a result of ignorance on my part - but knowing his experiences, and the age at which he experienced them, must have had a profound effect on him. Yet, I hear nothing of the shame or guilt that has come out of post WWII German culture. Even the comments of his gun not being loaded strike me the same way as Bill Clinton's "But I didn't inhale." Knowing my family's experience with the era, his perceived silence (perhaps he's commented extensively elsewhere) is diconcerting to me.

I've been pondering on this since yesterday afternoon and I'm currently with € on this one. Hell, just posting my own sins against humanity up there left me facing my own oppressive guilt and I'm not particularly religious. When I think of all the times I could have helped others and didn't...I can't even describe the shame I feel. I'm going to have to figure out a way to rebottle that feeling or I'm not going to get anything done today. I want to give Pope B the benefit of the doubt and imagine that maybe he, too, finds his own behaviour so reprehensible that he has to hide it from himself in order to function. But I'll never know if that's true or if he really is evil. My perception is that this is particularly troublesome when compared to JPII's youth and professional outreach.