"Frequently Asked Questions"

Occasionally the Ratzinger Fan Club receives questions about the Cardinal and this website. These are answers to some of the prevalent inquiries.

Contents
What are the origins of the website?

  • This website was originally developed and released around the same time Dominus Iesus was released in August 2000. The Cardinal has often received criticism by critics for taking a stand for the truth of the Catholic faith and this was a way to show public appreciation. It has since acquired something of a popular reputation for being the online archive of resources by and about Cardinal Ratzinger.

    This is an UNofficial fanclub, and an informal one at that. Sorry to disappoint, but we do not have any secret handshakes, membership cards, or chapter meetings.

    The author does not have any manner of formal connection with Cardinal Ratzinger; nor does he possess personal knowledge of the Cardinal -- now Holy Father's -- daily agenda, nor means to relay personal comments to him directly, etc., etc., etc. If you want to register your concerns about the quality of teaching by your priest, catechism instructor or professor, take it up with the bishop.

How do I join the Ratzinger Fan Club?

  • Consider yourself already a member by virtue of your appreciation for the Cardinal! -- This is an UNofficial fanclub, and an informal one at that. Sorry to disappoint, but we do not have any secret handshakes, membership cards, or chapter meetings. However, we do have a mailing list which is host to the occasional discussion of Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) and various other topics.

    To subscribe to the Ratzinger Fan Club Mailing List, click HERE.

Who is Cardinal Ratzinger?

  • Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was head of the Catholic Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whose mission is to "to promote and safeguard the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the Catholic world" (John Paul II). The CDF was originally called the Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition as its duty was to defend the Church from heresy. It is the oldest of the Curia's nine congregations.

    In 1981, Cardinal Ratzinger was appointed Prefect of the Congregation by Pope John Paul II, and "put the smackdown on heresy" until his election in 2005 as the new Pope of the Catholic Church.

    Biographical Details about Cardinal Ratzinger.

How do I contact Pope Benedict XVI?

  • For snail mail, you can write to our dear Holy Father at the following address:

    His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
    Vatican City State, 00120
    Italy

    You can email him at benedictxvi@vatican.va, but good luck on getting a response. =)

Was Cardinal Ratzinger really the Grand Inquisitor?
  • No. The Cardinal's actual title was 'Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith' -- which was formerly known as "Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition." Pope St. Pius X in 1908 changed the name to the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office. It received its current name in 1965 with Pope Paul VI.

    So, while it may carry out the functional duties of the Inquisition, it is no longer known as such -- nor does it burn people at the stake. We just call him 'The Grand Inquisitor' because in the fevered minds of some progressive Catholics, the good Cardinal assumed a menacing status of Dostoyevskian proportions.

Was Cardinal Ratzinger a Nazi?

  • Good grief. No, Virginia, Cardinal Ratzinger was not a Nazi.

    The Ratzinger Fan Club normally doesn't indulge in the muck and mire of such rumors, but you'd be suprised how many people write inquiring about this malicious rumor.

    The story that Ratzinger was a member of the Hitler Youth is true. It's a biographical fact that seems to have circulated on many a mailing list, and seems to surface at precisely opportune times when the Prefect finds himself in the media's spotlight. From the way it has been presented, one might assume this is one of those skeletons the Cardinal keeps tucked away in his closet (next to his executioner's axe and the token heads of Hans Kung, Matthew Fox, Leonardo Boff & Charles Curran).

    The truth is that as Ratzinger mentions himself in Milestones: Memoirs: 1927 - 1977, he and his brother George were both enrolled in the Hitler Youth (at a time when membership was compulsory), and discusses family life under the Third Reich in chapters 2-4 of his autobiography.

    Likewise, John Allen Jr., journalist for the National Catholic Reporter and author of 2002's biography of the Cardinal The Vatican's Enforcer of the Faith, -- supplies the historical details sorely lacking in one of his many articles on the Cardinal ("The Vatican's Enforcer", National Catholic Reporter, April 16, 1999):

    As a seminarian, he was briefly enrolled in the Hitler Youth in the early 1940s, though he was never a member of the Nazi party. In 1943 he was conscripted into an antiaircraft unit guarding a BMW plant outside Munich. Later Ratzinger was sent to Austria's border with Hungary to erect tank traps. After being shipped back to Bavaria, he deserted. When the war ended, he was an American prisoner of war.

    Under Hitler, Ratzinger says he watched the Nazis twist and distort the truth. Their lies about Jews, about genetics, were more than academic exercises. People died by the millions because of them. The church's service to society, Ratzinger concluded, is to stand for absolute truths that function as boundary markers: Move about within these limits, but outside them lies disaster.

    Later reflection on the Nazi experience also left Ratzinger with a conviction that theology must either bind itself to the church, with its creed and teaching authority, or it becomes the plaything of outside forces -- the state in a totalitarian system or secular culture in Western liberal democracies. In a widely noted 1986 lecture in Toronto, Ratzinger put it this way: "A church without theology impoverishes and blinds, while a churchless theology melts away into caprice."


    See also:


    Ratzinger a Nazi? Don't Believe It! by Sam Ser. Jerusalem Post April 18, 2005 - written in response to an article that appeared in the Sunday Times (London) on April 17, 2005.

    Commentary: Benedict abused as 'nazi pope', by Uwe Siemon-Netto. UPI Religious Affairs Editor. April 23, 2005. A critical look at the latest liberal hysteria over this issue.

    New Pope Defied Nazis As Teen During WWII, by the Assoc. Press. New York Times April 23, 2005.

    Jewish leaders say pope's past cause for optimism, not concern, by Cindy Wooden. Catholic News Service. June 13, 2005.


    For more details of the Cardinal's life, click here.

Did Pope Benedict XVI really condemn Harry Potter?

  • Pope Benedict XVI may have said something regarding Harry Potter . . . back in 2003, and not officially (as in his capacity of Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith) but in a personal letter to a German author who had submitted her book (condemning J.K. Rowling's fantasy series) to the Cardinal for his review. The sum total of the Cardinal's reply on the matter, dated March 7, 2003:

    "It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly."

    Suffice to say the jury's out to lunch as to the significance of such a "condemnation", or whether the Cardinal has actually read a Harry Potter book himself -- for a compilation of reactions by Catholics and otherwise, see: Pope Benedict and Harry Potter Against The Grain July 14, 2005.



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