Last Known Pink Triangle Speaks about Being Placed in a Concentration Camp in Nazi Germany

     One myth thrown out by some conservative Christian Americans is that Hitler and the Nazis were gay.  Untrue.  Homosexuals were persecuted by Hitler, marked with pink triangles, and sent to concentration camps.  This is a historical fact.

     In the video below, Rudolph Brazda, who is possibly the last surviving Pink Triangle, speaks of his experience.

     From Paris with Yagg reports:

     97 year-old Rudolf Brazda is probably the last surviving man to have been deported by the Nazis for being a homosexual. In a video interview for Yagg he remembers his years as a prisoner at the Buchenwald concentration camp. He had previously given his precise and moving testimony to Jean-Luc Schwab, of the French organization Les “Oublié(e)s” de la Mémoire (Forgotten from Memory), who turned it into a fascinating book: Itinéraire d’un Triangle rose (Itinerary of a Pink triangle).

     The son of Tcheckoslovaquian immigrants in Germany, Rudolf Brazda was 20 when Hitler rose to power. He had lived his homosexuality freely and openly until the law penalizing homosexuality, the notorious “Paragraph 175″, was toughened by the Nazi regime. On August 8, 1942, after having gone to prison twice, he was sent to the concentration camp of Buchenwald, where he was given the number 7952, and a pink triangle.

     Here is the video of Brazda telling his story:

Thank you to Towleroad for introducing me to Yagg.

Whirlwind Tour of Gay Rights around the World

     Here's a CNN report that gives a cross section of the state of gay rights in various countries around the globe. (Bump to Joe.My.God for the video.)

Majority of Germans Don't Trust Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church

     Jesus said one would know someone's true nature by the fruit they produce.  Here is the fruit of the Catholic Church's child sexual abuse hypocrisies in Pope Benedict's homeland, Germany, where one would think he'd have the best chance of maintaining the flock's reverence and support.

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  More than one third of German Catholics between 18 and 30 are considering leaving the Catholic Church. 
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  Only 24% of Germans trust the pope.
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  Only 17% of Germans trust the Catholic Church.

     The Christian Science Monitor reports:

     With waning trust in church institutions and a turn toward “spirituality” among Catholic youth, many German Catholics under 30 have turned away from the pope. While saying they respect Benedict’s learning, young German Catholics don’t identify with Bavarian-born Benedict or with an institution seen as closed, hierarchical, and absolute.

     “Benedict is not communicating openly, and that means the church is not addressing its core problems during this [abuse] crisis,” says Geoff Steigler, a 25-year old graduate student in Munich and a believing Catholic. “But the church will have to adjust, since no young people are in the church anymore.”

     Polls reflect this sentiment. A March survey showed that only 24 percent of Germans expressed trust in Pope Benedict, compared to 38 percent in January. Overall trust in the Roman Catholic Church was even lower, at 17 percent in March compared to 29 percent in January, the poll showed. And according the Forsa Institute's April poll of more than 1,000 German Catholics, 23 percent of all church members are considering leaving.

     That disillusionment is felt greatest among youths, the poll found, with more than one-third of Catholics aged 18 to 29 considering leaving the church.

     Nice fruit, Ben.  Ain't karma a bitch?

Senior Belgian Bishop Resigns Admitting Sexual Abuse, Irish & German Bishops also Resign

     A manage a tois of Roman Catholic Bishops in Europe resigned this week because of their participation in the abuse of minors and/or the cover-up of cases of abuse.  Pope Benedict remains enthroned in the Chair of Peter.

Bishop Mixa, Criminal

     Outspoken Conservative Bishop Walter Mixa of Germany resigned after being accused of beating children, while the pope's brother, Georg Ratzinger, continues to stand behind his statement that he only beat boys a little bit.

Bishop Moriarty, Criminal

     Pope Benedict finally accepted the resignation of Bishop James Moriarty of Kildare and Leighlin, Ireland, after refusing to do so for months. 

     The New York Times reports:

     The longest-serving bishop in Belgium resigned Friday after admitting to sexually abusing “a boy in my close entourage” many years ago, becoming the latest cleric to quit in a spreading abuse scandal.     

     Having a "close entourage" of boys should have been the first clue.

     In a statement issued by the Vatican on Friday, Roger Vangheluwe, 73, the bishop of Bruges since 1985, said that the abuse had occurred “when I was still a simple priest and for a while when I began as a bishop.”      

     Here's a picture of Vangheluwe from those days so long ago, when he was a "simple priest" enjoying the company of young boys and in Pope John Paul II's entourage.

     “This has marked the victim forever,” he said. The bishop said that he had asked the victim and his family several times to forgive him, but that the wound had not healed, “neither in me nor the victim.” A recent media storm merely deepened the trauma, he said. “I am profoundly sorry,” he said.

     The resignation came 10 years after the church in Belgium set up a commission to look into complaints of abuse that frequently seemed at loggerheads with the church leadership.

Bishop Vangheluwe,
Boy Entourage Aficionado

     How convenient that Vangheluwe waited until he was retirement age to resign.  Must we all wait for abusive clerics to reach retirement age before they take responsibility for their actions?  As for you never healing from your "wound" of having abused a boy, Bishop Vangheluwe: good!  May you bleed for years to come, man of god.

Altar Chimps, the Daily Show's Cure for the Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis

     In response to recent revelations of pupils being "sadistically tormented and also sexual abused" by Catholic clergy in a Bavarian monastery and Pope Benedict/Ratzinger's signature on a 1985 letter that delayed the defrocking of a convicted child rapist-priest, John Stewart of The Daily Show called in fix-it man John Hodgman to offer strategies for eradicating sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

"You're Welcome" with John Hodgman.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
You're Welcome - Church Scandal Prevention
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Just to recap.  Here are Hodgman's prescriptions for preventing priest-perpetuated pedophilia:

• Prevention by replacing cassocks with button fly jeans and altar boys with altar chimps
• Kill the Mood by desexifying the Mass: no wine, no incense, no more boy sopranos
• Accountability via maximum security monasteries

     To recap, here are the steps for remodeling the Catholic confessional in order to assure the safety of children, who must confess their sins to a priest who stand in for a two thousand year old anti-clerical radical named Jesus.

Replace wooden confessional walls with stone

Replace the flimsy screen with five-inch bulletproof glass

To ensure the safety of the child on the other side, place a couple of armed guards next to the priest

The Maximum Security Confessional

*Confessional images from The Daily Show

*Chimp cartoon from OneGoodMove

This post approved by Pedobear.

The Vatican Lied. Pope Benedict Knew about Pedophile Priest Returning to Parish Ministry and Should Resign

      H. M. S. (Her Majesty's Ship) Benedict XVI is taking on more water than she can handle.

     One day after the New York Times broke a story of how Pope Benedict refused to reprimand a serial pedophile from Wisconsin and two weeks after news of a pedophile priest's reassignment under Benedict's watch as a bishop in Germany, a new document has been unearthed revealing the infallible one's participation in the enabling of a sexually abusive priest under his care.  

     This new evidence is in direct opposition to the Vatican's recent claim that then-Cardinal Ratzinger was not informed of sexually abusive Rev. Peter Hullerman's return to parish ministry after his short-lived and "curative" stint in counseling.  After reassignment, Hullerman went on to abuse more children.

     The New York Daily News reports:

    When he was a cardinal, the future Pope Benedict was informed that a German priest he helped send to therapy for pedophilia 30 years ago would be returned to pastoral service only days after beginning psychiatric treatment, according to a published report.  The priest, the Rev. Peter Hullerman, was convicted of molesting boys in another parish six years later, and this week allegations surfaced that he abused more boys in 1998.

    Earlier this month, the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising blamed the pedophile priest's return to duty on the the archdiocese's then-deputy, the Rev. Gerhard Gruber. But a key 1980 memo on the case was copied to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then the archbishop of Munich and now the pope. It shows that he not only led a meeting in January of that year approving Hullerman's transfer, but also was kept informed about the priest's reassignment.

     So, the Catholic Church lied a few weeks ago in order to cover for the pope?  How Christ-like of them!

     Of course, the church is not going down without a fight.  ABC News reported the Vatican's response just minutes ago:

     "The then archbishop had no knowledge of the decision to reassign [Reverend Peter Hullerman] to pastoral activities in a parish," the Vatican said in a statement, adding that it "rejects any other version of events as mere speculation".

     The Vatican is sticking to its false story continuing to blame Gruber.  Then why do the documents show that Ratzinger was involved, kept informed, and even lead the meeting in which Hullerman's transfer was approved? 

     Hypocrite Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church stand at a crossroads.  Will they continue to point fingers, hurl lies, and hide behind fortress walls to attack the truth in the name of their own self-preservation, or will the pope resign and admit his place among the criminal  bishops who were more concerned with protecting the reputation of pedophile priests and holy dysfunctional Mother church than with protecting innocent children?

     A real captain goes down with his ship, Ben.

The Dutch Respond to U.S. Retired General Sheehan's Blaming the Gays for the Srebrenica

     In an attempt to defend Don't Ask, Don't Tell in Washington last week, retired U.S. Marine Corps General John Sheehan blamed the presence of gays in the Dutch armed forces for the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre/Genocide, in which Christians ethnically cleansed Muslims by committing the largest mass murder in European history since the slaughter of German citizens in Eastern Europe after World War II.  

     The Dutch are outraged at Sheehan and have been quick to attack and discredit Sheehan's ignorant and homophobic statements.   Rachel Maddow reports on the specifics of the Dutch response below.  In short, Sheehan based his allegation on the word of a Dutch man who doesn't exist (and I'm not talking about his god) and the highest members of the Dutch government are condemning Sheehan's ignorance. 

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Tsunami of Sexual Abuse Claims Engulf Pope Benedict's Former Diocese where His Staff Was Kept in the Dark Concerning Past Abuse

     The New York Times reports:

    Pope Benedict XVI's former diocese is facing new allegations of physical and sexual abuse on a daily basis, the head of its new sex-abuse task force said Friday.

    ''It is like a tsunami,'' Elke Huemmeler, who leads the diocese's newly founded abuse prevention task force, told The Associated Press.

    When the first abuse cases broke at Ettal about three weeks ago, Huemmeler immediately sat down with four or five colleagues to brainstorm and find a way out of the ''disaster'', as she calls it.

    ''I don't think I have ever seen us that shocked,'' Huemmeler, head of the diocese's social work unit, said about the church leadership.    

     Here's my idea for your brainstorm session: quit looking  for "a way out of the 'disaster'" and turn everything you find over to the civil authorities and people who are not involved in the Catholic Church.  Anyone working for the church and seeking a "way out"  has no authority for an impartial investigation.

     It is only a matter of time before more cases of abuse during Pope Ben/ Ratzinger's tenure in Munich become known.  The question is whether Huemmeler and other Catholics working with her will be open and honest if and when the pope's name comes up again.

     In response to the 1980 sexual abuse case that has been tied to possible mismanagement by Pope Ben/Ratzinger:

    Erwin Wild, then spokesman of the diocese's council of priests, said he and his colleagues were not informed by Ratzinger that the priest was an offender, which he thinks was wrong.

    ''We should have known,'' Wild said.

    Yes, you should have known, but that would have been inconvenient for Ratzinger's ambitions.

    Will we ever get accurate information from a church-led investigation into the Pope's possible involvement in sexual abuse?  I doubt it.  Even the Vatican official responsible for the church-led investigations into such cases admits that the surge in sexual abuse cases could overload his small staff of ten.

   The church needs to turn everything over to outside investigators.  This is the only way the church can regain any sort of credibility.

Pope Benedict XVI Guilty of Transfering Known Pedophile Priest. Where's the Millstone?

It's time for the rose-colored (Gucci) sunglasses to come off.

     In the history of the Roman Catholic Church, a pope has never resigned.  Well the time has come for that to change.  Pope Benedict XVI has now been connected to the sexual abuse crisis rocking the church and should resign immediately.

     It was only a matter of time that the infallible Vicar of Christ would go down.  It's well documented that bishops covered up sexual abuse of minors by priests for decades and that they knowingly transferred these abusive priests to other parishes, where they abused more children.  Pope Ben was a bishop for many years and, being a company man, would have followed the ecclesial status quo. 

     Now we know that he did.  Hypocrite!

     Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press reports:

     Germany's sex abuse scandal has now reached Pope Benedict XVI: His former archdiocese disclosed that while he was archbishop a suspected pedophile priest was transferred to a job where he later abused children.

     The pontiff is also under increasing fire for a 2001 Vatican document he later penned instructing bishops to keep such cases secret.

     The revelations have put the spotlight on Benedict's handling of abuse claims both when he was archbishop of Munich from 1977-1982 and then the prefect of the Vatican office that deals with such crimes -- a position he held until his 2005 election as pope.

     And they may lead to further questions about what the pontiff knew about the scope of abuse in his native Germany, when he knew it and what he did about it during his tenure in Munich and quarter-century term at the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

     Dana Kennedy of AOL News reports on the details of the case:

    Benedict XVI knew a priest was a pedophile in 1980 but approved a stint in therapy that allowed him to continue in the ministry, where he remains today.

    Benedict was an archbishop in Germany when the case began in 1980. The priest was accused of forcing an 11-year-old boy to perform oral sex on him, the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported Friday night. [This is repulsive and not what Jesus had in mine when he ordered Peter (and, according to the RCC, all of his successors, who are the Vicars of Christ/Popes) to feed his lambs. John 21:16-17]

     Benedict approved a decision moving the priest, identified only as "H," to a rectory in Munich where he was to undergo therapy. After about a month, according to a statement issued Friday by the Munich-Freising archdiocese, Monsignor Gerhard Gruber decided to return the priest to a Munich parish.

    But by 1985, new allegations surfaced. In 1986, the priest was convicted of sexually abusing other minors after he had been moved to the town of Grafing to do pastoral work. He received a fine, a suspended prison sentence and more therapy before again returning to pastoral work.

     Monsignor Gruber quickly took the fall for Ben, claiming that he (Gruber) alone is the one responsible for returning "H" to ministry, where "H" went onto abuse more boys.  I don't buy it. 

     The press reports that Ratzinger/Benedict approved the decision to pull "H" from the parish in 1980 and put "H" in therapy.  A month later "H" returned to ministry, by Gruber's (self-proclaimed) approval, but Ratzinger (Ben) was the cardinal/archbishop.  He was the man in charge and responsible for his priests and their welfare, this according to both the church's theology and Canon Law.  If Ratzinger had been privy to the abuse and the decision to pull and put "H" in therapy, how could he not have been aware that a month later "H" was back in the parish with kids?  Bishops have to sign off on major transfers, removals, and placements of priests.  Ben was archbishop there from 1977-1982.  How could he not have been aware that "H" was back in the parish between 1980 and 1982?  It's impossible.  Unless, of course,  Ratzinger was the worst and most uninformed bishop of his age, which would seen to disqualify him for the quick promotions he got to become Lord Inquisitor of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and then Vicar of Christ.

        During those years, how many abusers did Pope Benedict enable?  How many children were used as sexual objects by priests, because the future infallible one chose to protect pedophiles instead of the "lambs" entrusted to to him?

     What was Benedict's response to this breaking story?  It's "reported that the pontiff had expressed 'great dismay and deep shock.'"  What wasn't reported is whether this is shock and awe is because of what was, yet again, done to children by Ben's priests in the name of Jesus Christ or because the world now knows that Ben's hands are dirty, too. 

     Pope Benedict should resign now.  Catholics should be screaming from the pews this weekend.  They should take back control of their church from those who abuse in the name of their god.  They should be protesting and withholding their tithes.  Now that they are aware, if they continue to do nothing, they are culpable. 

     So, what would Jesus do?  Thankfully, this is one case where three of the four gospels agree.

"It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin." -Jesus

Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2

How long can you hold your breath, Benny?

Nazi Ratzinger's Sieg Heil Photo is a Fake

     In December, I posted about Pope Benedict XVI's Nazi history and how he was a member of Hitler Youth.  There is an unintended mistake in my post.

     During my research the pope's brother Georg Ratzinger, who has landed himself in the middle of the clergy sexual and physical abuse scandal rocking Germany, I found a picture of the Ratzinger brothers celebrating Mass together (supposedly on their ordination day).  Here is the photo, via Getty Images.

Comedy/Drama: a Ratzinger Epiclesis

Georg is the smiling one.  The future Pope Ben the constipated one. 

     This is the picture that I found during my research in December.  This picture is being circulated around the internet as Pope Benedict doing the Sieg heil.

     Do you see what I see? 

     The Sieg heil photo is a crop of the angry epiclesis photo. 

     This doesn't change the fact the Ratzinger was a member of Hitler Youth, that much of what he does as pope is harmful to people, and that he transfered a pedophile priest, who continued to abuse other boys, but it does clarify this photo, which is a fabrication.

Pope's Brother Georg Ratzinger Abused Choir Boys

     It's Ratzinger's turn to be in the spotlight, but not everybody's favorite inquisitor and Hiter Youth member Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict.  It's time for the lesser Ratzinger, the cleric that the world has forgotten, and the elder brother of Pope Ben, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, to leave his mark (on choir boys). 

     Georg (pronounced "gay-org" as in gay.org) has landed himself in the middle of a scandal in Germany, and this is in addition to the 100,000 euro birthday bash thrown for him with church money. 

    The Belfast Telegraph reports:

    Reports of systematic historical abuse by clergy have surfaced at three schools in the Regensburg diocese in Bavaria. One of them is the much-heralded Regensburger Domspatzen, a thousand-year-old male choir and boarding school, whose choral master for 30 years was the Pope's older brother, Georg...

     But he [Georg] says that he never heard of any abuse in his time with the choir. Asked by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica whether he would talk to German officials, the 86-year-old Mgr Ratzinger replied: "Obviously I'd be ready to do so, but I am not able to provide any information on any deed that could be punished, because I don't have any – I never knew anything about it."

     Any abuse at the Regensburger Domspatzen, he said, occurred before he took over. He did admit that pupils at the school were subjected to a climate of "discipline and rigour" but added that this was necessary in order to reach "a high musical, artistic level".

     But Franz Wittenbrink, a German composer who lived at the school until 1967, described the school as being run by "a sophisticated system of sadistic punishments in connection with sexual lust". He was also quoted by Der Spiegel as saying that it was "inexplicable" that the Pope's brother knew nothing of what was happening.

     Inexplicable?  Sadistic punishments in connection with sexual lust?  But, Georg said he knew nothing.  That was the story reported on March 9th. 

     Here's an article by The Times of India dated March 11th:

    The pope's brother has said he slapped pupils as punishment after he took over a renowned German boys' choir in the 1960s. 

    He also said he was aware of allegations of physical abuse at a school linked to the choir but did nothing about it. 

    The Rev Georg Ratzinger, 86, said in an interview he was unaware of allegations of sexual abuse at the Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir, part of a string of charges of sex abuse by church employees across Europe in recent days. 

    Ratzinger said boys would open up to him about being mistreated in Etterzhausen. "But I did not have the feeling that I should do something about it. 

    "Had I known with what exaggerated fierceness (the abuser) was acting, I would have said something. I ask the victims for pardon", he said.

     On Tuesday, Georg knew nothing of abuse.  On Thursday, Georg backpedals, admitting that he not only knew of physical abuse linked to the choir over which he was master, but that he kept his mouth closed doing nothing to help the abused kids, and that he hit the boys.  It's okay though, becuase now that he's been caught he's asking for forgiveness.

     Chistian Child Abuse writes:

     Today in an interview with German paper Passauer Neue Presse Father Georg said: 'I was happy with every choir practice but I have to admit sometimes I did get depressed because we didn't get the right results.

    'At the very beginning I would often give clips around the ear even though my conscience was later troubled for doing so.'

    Father Georg added that he had never severely beaten boys nor left them with bruises or other injuries and went on to say that he had heard of the other incidents of abuse from the boys - contrary to claims he had made earlier in the week.

     Well, I guess it's okay, Georg, but only because you were depressed about your choir sounding flat and because the boys didn't bruise.  It was all worth it for the music, wasn't it?  I'm sure that those boys would agree.

    What will Georg Ratzinger's story be tomorrow?  No abuse?   Physical abuse?   Sexual abuse?  More depressing excuses? 

     It's time for the people in the pews to stand up to the system of abuse that has and continues to rule the Catholic church and so many other religious communities in the world.  Why anyone keeps trusting their kids' bodies and "souls" to "venerated" clerics is beyond me. 

Catholic Sexual Abuse of Children in Germany

      Like a slow-growing, undiagnosed cancer spreading slowly throughout the body until it's been discovered throughout every extremity, another level of the depravity of the Catholic sexual abuse scandal is now being unmasked in Germany.  This time, the abuse of comes at the hands of the Jesuits.  Pope Benedict should be proud of the church in his homeland for committing such atrocities against children in the name of god. 

     Press TV reports:

    Germany's heinous sexual abuse scandal, which has cast shadow over the country's Jesuit-run institutions, deepens with the likelihood of over 100 victims in one of the schools.

     Revelations about sexual abuse during the 1970s and 80s at a prestigious Berlin snowballed into a disaster in early February, implicating other schools run by the order in and out of Germany.

     Some 50 students have come forward with allegation of abuse, but the Berlin college's rector said Monday he believed the victims in that school alone would amount to at least 100.

     "I believe that it will turn out to be a three-digit number…More and more victims come forward every day," Klaus Mertes, director of the Canisius Kolleg told the Berliner Zeitung daily in an interview.

     The high school instructs pupils between 10 to 19 years of ages, and is one of Germany's most prestigious religious colleges.

     While at least three Jesuit priests have so far confessed to their crimes, German media reports say at least 100 clergymen have been under suspicion of abusing pupils during the past 15 years.

     The new estimate, which is higher than previously thought, may ignite calls for legal action against the sex offenders, only 30 of whom have so far been prosecuted and sentenced.