Pope Benedict visited Poland to follow in the footsteps of John Paul II. During World War II, the two popes served on different sides. Benedict was conscribed into Hitlers Youth movement and served in the Wehrmacht.

At Birkenau, the Pope said according to the Los Angeles Times (quoted also in our local rag):

In a place like this, words fail. In the end, there can only be a dread silencea silence which is itself a heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent?

Yet our silence becomes in turn a plea for forgiveness and reconciliation, a plea to the living God never to let this happen again.

It surprised me to hear the Pope blame God for the holocaust. That is, he implies that God let it happen therefore he is to blame. The truth is that Hitler and his henchmen are to blame.

While God was receiving the holocaust victims into Eternal Rest along with the many more millions who died in the War, Hitler and his gang were racking up points for their trip to Hades.

If man is to be judged on his earth journey for good and bad, then he must be free to act in either category.

The Popes plea: God never to let this happen again, will not be answered. God will always allow men to be evil, callous, unrepentant, egotistical, arrogant, rude, obtuse, and blasphemous, and to love war more than peace.

When evil men died horribly in the past, God was given credit for their destruction. But God is not in a hurry to give judgment. He is willing to wait and give the evil ones a chance to repent.

Look at Paul who was looked upon by the early Christians in the same light that we look on Hitler and his gangs of hoodlums. Paul repented, did some good in the early church, and saved his soul.

There is no such hope for Hitler and his killers.

copyright2006 John T. Jones, Ph.D.