A former ‘Hitler Youth’ as Holy Father? God moves in mysterious ways…

Many others, I’m sure, will dredge up the fact that our new Holy Father, who took the name of Benedict XVI – His Holiness Joseph Alois Ratzinger – had joined the "Hitler Jugend" (Hitler Youth) at age 14, then fought as a soldier in the German Army during World War II. So I’m not telling tales out of school.

This does not mean, of course, that our newly-elected Supreme Pontiff had been a Nazi sympathizer. His biodata maintains that young people had to enroll in the Hitler Youth in accordance with a 1936 German law. It’s difficult to picture the very intellectual and theologically brilliant former Cardinal Ratzinger (who speaks 10 languages, and has penned over 40 books) swinging down the street in the massed ranks of budding brownshirts, belting out "Die Fanne hock…" (raise high the flag), the opening lines of the Horst Wessel Leid. What banner? The Swastika, what else?

Much is being made of our new Pope Benedict XVI being "a German Pope," close on the heels of a beloved and extremely popular Polish Pope, John Paul II. He’s more than German – he’s Bavarian from the Heimat. Bavaria, which nestles next-door to Austria, is not just the birthplace of the Nazi Party (remember, Hitler staged his first failed Putsch in Munich, and the first martyr of the Nazi cause was killed by a flying beer mug in the Hofbrauhaus) but is the fortress of devout, die-hard Catholicism.

Germany’s Catolicos cerrados come from Munich – where beer was invented by the Monks, hence the city’s name – and Bavaria, where even the Oktoberfest drinking songs speak of churches like the Alte Pieter, et cetera.

That having been said, we kiss the ring and bow our heads to hopefully receive the Urbi et Orbi blessing of our vicar of Christ, trusting in God to set him straight. Ab initio he starts out with a severe image problem, since nobody can be as saintly-looking, charismatic, and photogenic (even in his last two-year debility) as the late Papa Karol Wojtyla.

As head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, moreover, Cardinal Ratzinger – who was brought to Rome by John Paul II himself in 1981 – had to crack the whip as the tough enforcer of conservative doctrine for 24 years. His post has been equated to that of Torquemada during the Spanish Inquisition.

However, his friends and his Cardinal electors testify that the new Pope is, in reality, pious, sincere, charming and true. Oh well. Who are we to judge from superficial reports?

Surely, Jesus Himself did not pick a man of proven qualities to be his first Pope. The fisherman Simon-Peter, only a short time earlier, had denied knowing Christ "The Nazarene" three times when confronted by people just after Christ’s arrest and before His crucifixion. Peter had lied and declared, "I know Him not," thrice before the cock crowed, then fled in terror along with the rest of the Apostles, save one.

Again, if you believe Christian tradition, there is a spot on the old Via Appia where a chapel stands, called "Quo Vadis" enshrining an imprint of Jesus’ foot. The story goes that Peter, fearful once again of his own life, was fleeing Rome where the government was rounding up Christians, crucifying them, turning them into human torches, or casting them into the amphitheatre or Colosseum to be devoured by wild beasts. On the road, to his shock, Peter saw Our Lord Jesus walking towards Rome.

"Quo vadis, Domine? (Where are You going, Lord?) he querulously queried.

"To Rome," Jesus was said to have replied, "to be crucified again." Stung by the gentle reproach, Peter turned around and went back to Rome. When seized by the Roman soldiery, he asked to be crucified upside down, because he said he was not worthy to die as His Master did.

There are the legends of imperfect men being converted into heroes and saints by God’s grace (even that of Saul being struck by God’s lightning, to be transformed into St. Paul on the Road to Damascus).

Thus it must be with Pope Benedict XVI, newly-anointed by the Conclave and the Holy Spirit. Habemus Papam! But the question remains for all of us: Quo vadimus? Where are we going?

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The bookmakers, who placed odds on who would "win" the 70 percent vote in the Conclave to secure the Papacy, called it right when they announced Ratzinger. 78 as the runaway frontrunner to clinch the Papal throne.

"TIME" Magazine even gave him odds of 7 to one, unless I’m mistaken.

Perhaps the Cardinals chose an "oldie," to risk sounding irreverent, so the next Pope wouldn’t reign too long – thus safely getting the Church a kind of transitional Pope who wouldn’t pull any surprises, or create shock waves, until the Church had time to eyeballl the younger set for a more long-lasting candidate. Indeed, Ratzinger was allways at the elbow of Pope John Paul II, met with him regularly every Friday, but even more frequently during the week, and shared many of his conservative values. Yet, Papa Angelo Roncalli was 76 when he was elected Pope John XXIII, and expected to simply coast along, but in the five years he reigned Papa Roncalli upset the conservative apple cart, flung open the casements of the Church to change and ecumenism, and convened Vatican II.

Ratzinger is expected to be less impetuous. But who can tell?

In retrospect, the Jesuit scholar from Georgetown University, Thomas J. Reese, may have called it closest in his book, "INSIDE THE VATICAN", subtitled "The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church." (Harvard University Press, 1996) – can you beat that, nine years ago! – when he wrote of the choosing of the next Pope after John Paul II.

Reese had written: "Being elderly or sickly is an advantage for a compromise candidate since the older he is the sooner he will die and allow the cardinals to return to elect a serious candidate. Cardinals elected as interim popes, like Sixtus V (1585-1590), have sometimes surprised their electors with their initiatives, John being the most recent and dramatic example."

Age, he asserted, is a strong factor. "Of the nine popes who have lived in this century (beginning with Leo XIII), their average age at the time of election was 65 years. The youngest was John Paul II at 58 (followed by Benedict XV at 59), while the oldest was John XXIII at 76. All the rest were in their sixties."

In this light, our new Pope at 78 is the oldest this century.

When he was born in Martkl am Inn, in Bavaria, the son of Joseph Ratzinger Sr. and his wife Mary, did anyone dream he would become Supreme Pontiff and Bishop of Rome?

His father was a cop, a police officer who served in both the Bavarian Landespolizei and the German Ordnungspolizei. Just goesto show that sanctity can find root in the least likely places, and in the most unlikely families. Yet, wasn’t the first Pope a fisherman, and another of the leading apostles and evangelists a tax collector? God draws straight with crooked lines, G. K. Chesterton once said. And God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.