Predicted libellous liberal backlash against new Pope begins

Well, the predicted teeth-gnashing, wailing, abusive slander, and vociferous name-calling has begun with a vengeance. UPI Religious Affairs Editor, Uwe Siemon-Netto offers this analysis:

"Nazi pope a clear and present danger to the civilized world," read the headline of a reader's letter in a forum of NYTimes.com, The New York Times' Web site.

It wasn't the worst abuse leveled at Pope Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, a German. Type the words "Nazi pope" into the Google search line, and you will get nearly 700 mentions [see, e.g., this].

"Seig Heil, hail Mary!" read one post, misspelling German word for victory, which is "Sieg."

"What can you expect from a filthy Nazi?" asked one blogger quoted, with horror, by National Review Online. The blogger went on: "...Nazi bas-- wearing a dress and no doubt with a past in child-molesting." (Source: Commentary: Benedict abused as 'nazi pope')

The British press has been portraying new Pope as Nazi, citing his brief membership in the Hitler Youth, "Nazi to Pope Ratzi," etc. Matthew Mcallester, a staff correspondent for Newsday.com offers this analysis of the faceoff between British and offended German newspapers:

Pope Benedict XVI's past membership in a Nazi youth organization has sparked a faceoff between British and German newspapers that has highlighted the deep sensitivities that run in Germany about World War II and the role of its now-aging citizens in that war.

"English Insult German Pope," yelled the front-page headline on Germany's largest daily newspaper, Bild, yesterday in response to a slew of uncomplimentary British headlines the day before that referred to Benedict as "God's Rottweiler" and "Hitler Youth."

"The British press should think about themselves and how they're always talking about Nazis and how this influences their own youths and you end up getting Prince Harry with a swastika on his arm," said Winfried Rohmel, spokesman for the archdiocese of Munich, who became then-Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger's spokesman in 1977." (source: "Germans, Brits spar over pope")

For more on this, see also the following Yahoo.news article on the issue, which reports:

Germany's top-selling newspaper Bild was furious at the coverage of the new pope by British newspapers, which had accentuated Benedict XVI's past as a teenager in Nazi Germany.

"English insult the German pope," said the front-page headline, below the words "Hitler Youth."

The Sun, like Bild the highest-selling daily newspaper in its market, had headlined its coverage of the election of Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday with the words "From Hitler Youth to... Papa Ratzi."

....A Bild editorial written by senior journalist Franz Josef Wagner said: "If you read the British tabloids yesterday, you would have thought Hitler had become pope.

"Only the devil could come up with such a thing. Or you English, with your complexes.

"It is like in football matches, we are always the Nazis."

.... Jewish groups around the world have generally acknowledged the new pontiff's earlier efforts to build links between Jews and Catholics. (source: "German paper outraged at British coverage of 'Nazi' pope")

Next thing to watch for: liberal pseudo-Catholic media (National Catholic Reporter, Commonweal, U.S. Catholic magazine, etc.) to begin their spin. Don't expect them to be any happier than the New York Times, that parish magazine of affluent and self-congratulatory liberal "enlightenment."