Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
Having listened to that speech in full, as it was made, I think the accent was on extremism rather than Nazism. He used that as it's an obvious example from his own personal experience. Believe me, I'm no fan of the office held by Joseph Ratzinger, but fair's fair, when it comes to Nazis he knows what he's talking about (and no, I'm not poking fun at his membership of the Hitler Youth, quite the opposite).
It so happens that Nazi extremism was fuelled by an extremist atheistic worldview. What would be more interesting would be an acknowledgement from Herr Ratzinger of the pain caused by Romish extremism, such as the Inquisition (whose successor organisation he was head of prior to being elected to the office of Bishop of Rome).
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Good points up until the Inquisition bit, I recently read/heard a piece saying that The Inquisition actually stopped a lot of the vigilante justice meated out at the time, that fewer than 1% of trials resulted in death or torture and in many cases they ordered more lenient sentences than the normal secular courts would have.
Trouble is with this subject that decent figures and statistics are hard to come by, what isn't in doubt is that the figures of 9 - 40 millions plus deaths at the Inquisitions hands are ludicrously wide of the mark. Not that I am in any way excusing their actions after all love and forgiveness are at the heart of their doctorine.