Ghosts Hour! Spooks Hour!

"Father had to take a position against the violence of the Nazis. We could very clearly sense the immense anxiety weighing him down, which he could not manage to shake even during ordinary activities... Father thus decided, toward the end of 1932, to change locations once more. In Tittmoning he had simply said too much against the brownshirts. In December, shortly before Christmas, we moved into our new home in Aschau-am-Inn" (12-13)

"We had arrived in December 1932, and already on January 30, 1933, Hindenburg transferred to Hitler the position of chancellor of the Reich, an event that in the language of the Party came immediately to be known as the “seizure of power’—and that is exactly what it was, too. From the first instant power was exercised. I myself have no memory of that rainy day, but my brother and sister have told me that the school had to perform a march through the village that, of course, soon turned into a tramp through the slush that could hardly have fired anyone’s enthusiasm. Nevertheless, there already existed both open and secret Nazis in the village who now saw their hour arrive and, to the terror of many, were bringing their brown uniforms out of the trunk. The “Hitler Youth” and “League of German Girls” were introduced, and my brother and sister were obliged to participate in their activities. It mortified my father to have to work now for a government whose representatives he considered to be criminals, even if local policemen in the village were for the time being, thanks be to God, hardly affected by the changes. As far as I can see, the sole result of the new regime, during the four years we spent here, was the practice of spying and informing on priests who behaved as “enemies of the Reich”. It goes without saying that my father had no part in this. On the contrary, he would warn and aid priests he knew were in danger." (14)

"Because of the considerable physical demands of the profession made on them, policemen in those days were required to retire at age sixty. My father waited impatiently for this day. The frequent night shifts were beginning to get the better of him, but the greater stress came from the political situation within which he had to discharge his responsibilities. He took an extended sick leave, during which he and I would often go hiking and he would tell me stories of his earlier life. Finally, on March 6, 1937, he turned sixty." (21)

"Because of the increasingly worn-down condition of the men in the armed forces, our rulers came up with something new in 1943. They observed that boarding-school students already had to live in community away from their homes and that, therefore, nothing stood in the way of changing the place where they boarded—namely, to the batteries of the anti-aircraft defense (Flak). And since in any event they could not be studying the whole day, it appeared quite normal to engage them in their free time for the service of defense against enemy planes. Even though I had not for quite a while now been in boarding school, still, juridically, I belonged to the minor seminary in Traunstein. So it was that the small group of seminarians from my class (those born in 1926 and 1927) were now drafted, and we had to go to the Flak in Munich. Being all of sixteen years of age, I now had to undertake a very peculiar kind of “boarding-school” existence." (30)

"On September 10, 1944, having reached military age, we were released from the Flak, in which we had actually served as students. When I arrived home, the draft notice of the Reichsarbeitsdienst already lay on the table. On September 20 an endless trip took us to Burgenland, where we (including many friends from the gymnasium at Traunstein) were as- signed to a camp in a spot where three countries—Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary—meet. The weeks spent in the labor detail have left me with oppressive memories. Most of our superiors were former members of the so-called Austrian Legion and thus old Nazis who had done time in prison under Chancellor Dollfu8. They were fanatical ideologues who tyrannized us without respite. One night we were pulled out of bed and gathered together, half asleep in our exercise uniforms. An SS officer had each individual come forward and, by taking advantage of our exhaustion and exposing each of us before the gathered group, attempted to make “voluntary” recruits for the weapons branch of the SS. A whole series of good-natured friends were in this way forced into this criminal group. With a few others I had the good fortune of being able to say that I intended to become a Catholic priest. We were sent out with mockery and verbal abuse. But these insults tasted wonderful because they freed us from the threat of that deceitful “voluntary service” and all its consequences." (32-33)

"At the end of April or the beginning of May—I do not remember precisely—I decided to go home. I knew that the city was surrounded by soldiers who had orders to shoot deserters on the spot. For this reason I used a little-known back road out of town, hoping to get through unmolested. But, as I walked out of a railroad underpass, two soldiers were standing at their posts, and for a moment the situation was extremely critical for me. Thank God that they, too, had had their fill of war and did not want to become murderers. Still, they had to find an excuse to let me go. Because of an injury I had my arm in a sling, and so they said: “Comrade, you are wounded. Move on!” In this way I came home — unhurt." (36)

Via @iamfitzwilliamdarcy

Apparently not, and I'm so fed up about it. Like, do you hate/want to hate him because you think the Church is evil and popes are evil? That's fine. But there was and still is this wildly inaccurate image of the man that is nonsense refutable by like... a quick Wikipedia visit and watching one video of the man in public. But it persists and persists.

There's the nazi thing, but there's also:

"He was a stern, deeply authoritarian and reactionary person" (cfr. The Two Popes and the absolute wild casting and characterization of Sir Anthony Hopkins)

The actual guy:

- Was so shy and awkward as a young man he was bullied IN SEMINARY for being bad at sports

- He was a modern theologian and his work was considered subversive and suspicious enough that it was included in the Opus Dei list of books that should be restricted to theologians only for decades. And it isn't like he did a 180° at any point.

- Because he was on main a piano playing, cat loving academic, his general vibe as pope was "retired professor is suddenly brought in in a crisis to be rector and he's trying his best to do all the public and administrative stuff, bless his heart.". But if you want tangible numbers, he promulgated 13 motu proprios (equivalent of decrees/executive orders) in 7 years of pontificate. Francis promulgated *75* (that's seventy-five) in 12 years. That's over 6 per year.

- The whole point of his liberalizing the use of the old Roman rite, as explicitly stated in its motu proprio was to allow for the mutual enrichment between the new and old forms, so that, in time, they could fuse, because he believed Liturgy was a gift handed down and not something the pope should do and undo to his liking.

"He was inflexible and fixated on turning back the clock, esclerotizing the Church and isolating from the world"

- He proposed initiatives such as the Courtyard of the Gentiles, that were meant to foster dialogue between the Church and the sciences

- Pushed to convert the Vatican to solar energy aiming to reduce emissions as much as possible, and was committed to ecology as a point of contact between Catholic Doctrine and modern moral preoccupations

- He tried to bridge not only with notoriously difficult schismatic groups like the FSSPX, but fostered the negotiations that allowed Anglicans converting to Catholicism to keep their rite and customs and have their own hierarchies, and approved with reservations things like the Neocatechumenal Liturgy (which anyone who has read his works on Liturgy knows it wasn't a thing he was enthusiastic about, but he was willing to listen and dialogue and reach some agreement)