New pope is former Hitler Youth

Snipped from today's London Times:

"Ratzinger's past includes brief membership of the Hitler Youth movement and wartime service with a German army anti- aircraft unit. (...) Ratzinger was enrolled in an anti-aircraft unit that protected a BMW factory making aircraft engines. The workforce included slaves from Dachau concentration camp. Ratzinger has insisted he never took part in combat or fired a shot — adding that his gun was not even loaded — because of a badly infected finger. He was sent to Hungary, where he set up tank traps and saw Jews being herded to death camps.

Link (Thanks, David Calkins)

Boing Boing reader Patricio Lopez says, "I think the Ratzinger nazi info should be qualified," and points us to this Wikipedia entry for more detail: Link

Perhaps even more disturbing than Ratzingers obligatory Hitler youth stint, this detail mentioned in that Wikipedia entry:

On November 25, 1981 Pope John Paul II named Ratzinger prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition, which was renamed in 1908 by Pope Pius X.

(Thanks, Richard Steven Hack)