A Self-righteous Pope

Most people would agree that it is counter-intuitive to associate a pious entity such as the Pope with the genocidal Nazi Germans. In his article A German Lesson: The Fallacy of One Path, Goldenhagen challenges the benevolent reputation of the Pope by casting doubt upon his values and motives. While Goldenhagen concedes that it would be impossible for the Pope to ever instigate a mass murder, he asserts that Pope's ideology and thought processes are fundamentally similar to those of the Anti-Semitic Nazis.

As an attack on the Pope's rejection of relativism, Goldenhagen states, "As an account of the sources of Nazism and its horrors, this is selective and false; as a lesson learned from Nazism, it is selective and deeply troubling." But is that in itself terrible? Even someone as publicly spoken as the Pope should not be denied his right to form his personal opinions regarding matters of religion. If this moral stance is Pope's only crime, You and I could probably find room for understanding. However, it is his self-righteousness and hypocrisy that puts him into category with the Nazis.

Now the issue of motive becomes apparent. Both the Pope and the Nazis use a closed-minded ideology to justify their actions. The Nazis had the nerve to kill six million Jews for reasons they thought were good for society. Goldenhagen brings to light the possibility that the Pope has the potential to make an irrational, world-changing decision just because he can convince himself that his reasons are valid.