The Pope at Auschwitz: "They wanted to kill God"

"By destroying Israel, they ultimately wanted to tear up the taproot of the Christian faith." A startling interpretation of the Holocaust in the words of the German pope. (Sandro Magister, www.chiesa, May 29, 2006)

"The most extensively analyzed and criticized portion of Benedict XVI's trip to the homeland of his predecessor, Poland, was when he visited Auschwitz and Birkenau, sites of the Holocaust.

"It is criticized because of what pope Joseph Ratinger did not say there.

"According to his critics' expectations, Benedict XVI should have asked for forgiveness for the faults of the German nation -- to which he belongs -- and denounced the anti-Semitism of yesterday and today, especially that of many Christians.

"But it didn't happen. Benedict XVI didn't talk speak of these two matters.

"Nor did he repeat the usual interpretations of the Holocaust.

"On the contrary, he made an interpretation of the slaughter of the Jewish people that no pope had ever made before him."

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