World News 21-04-2005 The Hitler Youth Pope who: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger what: Becomes Pope Benedict XVI where: Vatican City when: Tuesday snippet: The status quo was maintained in Vatican City this week after one of the fastest elections in 100 years when the conclave named a 78 year-old former member of the Hitler Youth, nicknamed "God`s rottweiler", to be the 265th pontiff. "The Via della Conciliazione, the broad avenue leading to St Peter`s, turned into a Biblical mass of humanity as the news spread," says The Scotsman`s report. "Some in the crowd had football style hooters and blared them constantly while people in cars sounded their horns." Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, who takes the name Benedict XVI, is a staunch opponent of contraception, homosexuality, abortion and women priests. "`Viva il Papa,` (Long live the Pope) chanted the crowd," continues the report by Ian Johnston and Jeremy Charles in The Scotsman, "and they took up a football style chorus of `Ratzinger, Ratzinger` when the identity of the new Holy Father was revealed. Dozens of German flags could be seen waving furiously." "After the great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me as a simple, humble worker of the Lord," he told a crowd of an estimated 100,000 from the balcony of St Peter`s Basilica on Tuesday. "I am consoled by the fact that the Lord knows how to act even with insufficient instruments and above all I trust in your prayers." "The Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, the Most Rev Patrick Kelly, called him `wise and profound`," says The Mirror. "The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams said: `He is a theologian of great stature`." He is the oldest cardinal to become pontiff in 275 years and the first German for 900 years. At his first Mass as Pope on Wednesday, he "made numerous references to John Paul II, whose guidance he still sensed," says The Telegraph`s report by Jonathan Petre and Bruce Johnston. "It seems I can feel his strong hand squeezing mine," says Benedict XVI. "I seem to see his smiling eyes and listen to his words, addressed to me especially at this moment: `Do not be afraid!`" "Little is known of the Pope`s role during the Nazi era," reports The Independent`s Tony Paterson from the Bavarian town of Traunstein. "Documents show that he served in an anti-aircraft unit near Munich and he also seems, briefly, to have been a member of the Hitler Youth movement." His father, also called Joseph, was a known to be an anti-Nazi, but interviews with school teachers, Traunstein residents and Catholic churchmen suggest that "the Pope was indeed a participant in the Nazi war effort - albeit a very reluctant one". [... more]

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