Originally posted by Doomgaze in Bleys' lj:Originally Posted by Sepho
Moreover, when he was drafted into the Nazi army at 18, he almost immediately deserted, and was fortunate enough to be caught by Nazis that also opposed the war, so he was allowed to go home to his family. His family was anti-Nazi, from what I understand.
From CNN:
Ratzinger was born on April 16, 1927, in Marktl Am Inn, Germany. He was the son of a police officer who came from a traditional family of farmers in Lower Bavaria, according to his Vatican biography. Bavaria remains a heavily Catholic region of Germany.
He spent his adolescent years in Traunstein, near the Austrian border, when the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler controlled Germany.
In his memoirs, Ratzinger wrote that school officials enrolled him in the Hitler Youth movement against his will when he was 14 in 1941.
Membership was compulsory and the officials enrolled his entire class, acting on orders from the Nazi regime, Allen said. Ratzinger said he was soon let out because of his studies for the priesthood.
According to Allen, his family was quietly strongly anti-Nazi, and his father took a series of less significant jobs to stay away from what was happening in Nazi Germany.
During World War II, Ratzinger was drafted into army in 1943, serving in an anti-aircraft unit that tracked Allied bombing raids.
He deserted in the waning months of the war in 1945 and returned to Traunstein, where he was taken prisoner by U.S. troops.
In June 1945, he was released from a POW camp and returned home, this time hitching a ride on a milk truck.
From 1946 to 1951, he studied philosophy and theology at the University of Munich and at another school in Freising.
He was ordained a priest in 1951. In 1953, he received his doctorate in theology. His doctoral thesis was entitled, "The People and House of God in St. Augustine's doctrine of the Church."
Four years later, he was qualified as a university teacher and taught dogma and fundamental theology at four different German universities.
In 1962, at age 35, he was a consultant during Vatican II to Cardinal Frings, a reformer who was the archbishop of Cologne, Germany.
Allen said that as a young priest Ratzinger was on the progressive side of theological debates, but began to shift right after the student revolutions of 1968.
In 1969, he was named professor of dogmatic theology and of the history of dogma at the University of Regensburg, where he was also named vice president.
Just wanted to clear that up for everyone. As for him my thoughts on Benedict, I really dont care to be honest. I hope his papacy goes well, and I hope he doesnt build a Death Star.
