Questions over wartime past, church's future

TRAUNSTEIN, Germany -- Joseph Ratzinger came of age in this village in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps during Hitler's Third Reich and returned here throughout his life, from his early days as an inspiring theology professor to the last 24 years as a powerful Vatican official.

Yesterday the Catholic community here remembered the man the world now knows as Pope Benedict XVI with mixed emotions and grappled with pointed questions about his past as a member of the Hitler Youth during World War II, even as they worried where he might take the church in the years ahead.

In the late afternoon under a hard, driving rain, a thinly attended Mass in St. Oswald's Church, where Ratzinger was ordained in 1951, honored the native son who now leads the world's 1 billion Catholics. There were fewer than 75 people in the church, and none appeared to be under the age of 40.

In nearby Marktl am Inn, Benedict's birthplace, a warmer celebration took place, with small crowds gathering throughout the day. One resident handed out free beer to reporters who wanted to know about Ratzinger, the youngest of three sons of a local policeman. The family lived there for more than 10 years before moving to Traunstein.

Many parishioners at the subdued Mass in Traunstein expressed pride over the fact that the first German pope in nearly 1,000 years was from their town. But many were also quick to share reservations about the hard-line direction they believe the conservative Benedict will take their church.

The Rev. Sebastian Heindl, who presided at the Mass, said: ''I have to say I am full of anticipation. I wouldn't say I am worried, but I am aware he is a conservative and holds positions that I do not agree with and I would say many of my parishioners do not agree with."

With the world's news media descending on this village of 18,000 to find out about the new pope's formative years during the horrors of World War II, there were difficult questions from the outside world and from within the community itself that seemed to push old and uncomfortable memories to the surface for many townspeople.

In a 1997 interview and in his memoirs, Ratzinger wrote that at the age of 14 he was forced to join the Hitler Youth, as were the vast majority of young people at the time of the Third Reich, and that he was conscripted into the German military, serving as a scout at an antiaircraft position. Ratzinger has said he deserted the army shortly before the May 8, 1945, German surrender to Allied forces.

Despite this background, many Jewish organizations in Germany, Israel, and the United States expressed warm support yesterday for the new pope as a leader of Catholic-Jewish healing.

Still, there are few details of Ratzinger's experience in the Hitler Youth and his brief conscription into the German military, and some here say they still have questions.

Town historian Franz Hesselbeck has compiled two inch-thick, dog-eared manila folders stuffed with correspondence from Ratzinger and newspaper clippings about his visits, but said the town has no other official records on Ratzinger and his family.

''There are questions that should be asked about his past," Hesselbeck said. ''They are important questions in the context of their importance for Germans as a nation to work through our history. But they are questions that only he [the pope] can answer."

One of the people who remembered Ratzinger most clearly as a young man was the Rev. Rupert Berger, 78, who grew up in the same town. Berger said they attended the last three years of seminary together and were both ordained at the same ceremony in 1951 at St. Oswald's, in the town square.

In 2001, Berger joined Ratzinger and his older brother, Georg, who is also a priest and the former director of a boys' choir in the region, in celebrating the 50th anniversary of their ordination.

Standing in the doorway of his modest home in Traunstein, where he is retired after a half-century of service as a parish priest, Berger described the young Ratzinger as ''absolutely normal."

''He was very scientific, very correct," Berger said. ''He was not an athlete. He was very quiet. He didn't have many real close friendships."

Berger said there was distance between him and Ratzinger, because as adolescent boys, just at the time they were being confirmed as Catholics, they made different choices. Like the overwhelming majority living under the fear of the Nazi regime, Ratzinger has said he accepted the rules that required him to join the Hitler Youth.

But Berger said he refused to become a member of the Hitler Youth after his father, Joseph, was sent to Dachau and tortured for his anti-Nazi resistance activity. The elder Berger's leadership of the resistance is chronicled in several books and research papers in the town archives.

''It was a hard time to live, and there were hard choices to make," Berger said.

He said his decision did not come without consequences. He saw his monthly tuition at his formative school raised from 4 marks to 20 marks; some teachers scorned him publicly; and he knew he was being watched closely by the town's Nazi Party leadership. But he said he was proud of his choice and proud that his father returned to become mayor of Traunstein after the war.

When asked why he thought Ratzinger obeyed the rules and joined the Hitler Youth, Berger replied; ''You could ask the majority of Germans this question. There was such high pressure on everyone. He was too young to do a conscious resistance.

''The usual thing was to register the Catholic youth programs into Hitler's Youth," Berger added. ''That's how he slipped in, and then they would never talk about it. You could not be forced to join. The majority went, but obviously that does not make them all Nazis. They had bonfires and went camping." Berger said that he and Ratzinger ''never talked about it."

About 50 people gathered at the town hall for a champagne celebration honoring the new pope. Scores of glasses lined up on a long table were empty due to the unexpectedly small crowd. Five cases of beer were left unopened. The deputy mayor, Hans Zillner, hosted the event, saying the mayor had had a meeting with the traffic ministry in Berlin.

Julie Rosenegger, 70, who worked for many years as a caretaker at the church, said: ''I am happy he is from Traunstein. But I don't love the direction he wants the church to move in."

She said he doesn't seem ''willing to listen" to people like her about the issues that she and other Catholics feel face the church. Asked if that was perhaps why so few attended the celebration, she said: ''No, I think this is just our way. We as Germans are not the type to give a big cheer."