RIP Ratzi the Nazi

Can't think of many better ways to see the old year end and the new one begin than with the death of Joseph Ratzenberger, aka Pope Benedict XVI, aka Ratzi the Nazi. Yes, I know his Hitler Youth service was forced and he deserted the unit; the nickname plays on his German background to describe his time as cardinal-flunky of John Paul II, yet even further right, and above all his time as pope.

To extend the analogy, Ratzi the Nazi was one of JPII's chief stormtroopers, even a Gruppenführer of his reactionary papacy, gone further than the master.

Ratzi was hard-core anti-gay, as well as anti anything else that didn't fit into his small vehicle of conservative Catholicism. Since his retirement, many of Pope Francis' pronouncements have been seen as shots against those of Ratzi.

And, of course, he did basically nothing about the priestly child sex abuse scandal. In fact, he was part of the coverup. And, part of giving victims the back of the Vatican hand, while already having apologists flock around him like the flies of Beelzebul. He then tried to claim, shades of Uber and Lyft, that abusive priests were, essentially, independent contractors. (Francis, while far better, has not been far far better and is no shining light overall.) Per the obit piece at top link, Ratzi continued to shoot himself in the foot on this issue after becoming pope emeritus.

And, there are many fundamentalists Catholics and Conservative Cafeteria Catholics who can't accept the truth about Ratzi the Nazi, even though the bible itself says "the truth shall set you free," does it not?  

And, while we're going biblical?

Per comments about Ratzi's current locale, there is no heaven, or hell, and no immortal soul, so he's not in any realm of the saints. But, if both metaphysical sites existed, along with immortal souls, per Jesus' own "suffer the little children" plus "it would be better if a millstone were placed around their necks," he sure wouldn't be in heaven. 

As for the priests he defrocked? The apologists won't talk about how much outside pressure was required for that to happen or how many he didn't defrock. And, indeed, many of the alleged 400 were not defrocked but retired (whether totally voluntarily or not). And, in any case, it was not 400 final actions. It was 400 cases opened. Says who? National Catholic Register.

They won't talk about him being part of the coverup, per that link above, and individually as well as institutionally. Per Hitchens' piece I linked there, they won't talk about Ratzi the Pedi wrote a statute of "we've got first dibs" regulation about reporting abuse, as in, reporting stays in house for 10 years — probably hoping that governmental clocks would run out by then. As for the claim that "he did more than previous popes"? That's like sayig the atomic bomb is not as deadly as the hydrogen bomb.

They won't talk about how the Vatican financial scandal grew on his watch. They won't talk about how, going beyond JPII's putting a brake on everything in the way of Vatican 2 reforms, Ratzi actually tried to move that bus backward again, and in doing so, enabled Opus Dei, and Catholic groups and individuals more reactionary yet.

As for Blue Anon types, or leftists for that matter, who don't like the tag? I said on Twitter, too, that I was referencing his time as pope. If you call Mussolini a fascist but reject "Ratzi the Nazi," you're a hypocrite. Beyond all the above, he gave reactionary formal Catholic groups like Opus Dei a degree of coddling that even JPII wouldn't, as I note above. Beyond THAT, given David Kertzer's history of Pius XII's arguably being a fascist, if not a Nazi, Ratzi was chief among stonewallers of Kertzer and other historians wanting to look at Vatican archives of Pius XII. Benedict was also part of stonewalling over the release of official records of Pius XI, about whom, and his relationship to Mussolini, Kertzer has also written. (Catholic fundies refuse to admit this stonewalling is of a piece with Ratzi's other actions.)

Speaking of, Francis has now led Rome as long as Ratzi if not a bit longer, and there's been more and more talk about his health status in the last year. Will he avail himself of the "pope emeritus" idea and if so, how soon?

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Related thoughts, from old blog posts about Ratzi the Nazi?

How much is Douthat mourning his death, given that he mourned his retirement?

As for him being an unwilling draftee into Hitler Youth? The German Catholic Church remained cozy with elements of Germany's Nazi past even into Benedict's papacy.