Review: John Allen: Pope Benedict XVI: New York: Continuum: 2005. In order to 'save' the Catholic Church, has it become necessary to destroy it? John Allen has written an excellent recent critical biography of the current Catholic pontiff that may challenge his apologists. The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger emerges as very much a product of his early upbringing in Trauenstein, Bavaria. Allen suggests that those who draw attention to his war record are barking up the wrong tree. Rather, he notes, we should be asking about how ordinary Germans in general were able to turn a blind eye and continue to lead everyday lives while the Nazis hauled off Jews and others to the concentration camps. And Ratzinger was also oblivious to the absence of significant Catholic leadership in German resistance to that murderous totalitarian regime. In addition, his uncle, Georg Ratzinger, was a fervent anti-Semite, and several German Catholic Bishops espoused Nazism during the Second World War. Allen also suggests the future pontiff learnt the wrong lessons from his upbringing. Under his previous role as Prefect of the Congregation for the Defence of the Faith (formerly the Inquisition), the former Cardinal Ratzinger crushed Latin American liberation theology and harrassed prominent dissident theologians. Some would note that his own preferences are for constricted community, preference for personal salvation, biblical authority, an aversion to critical Catholic scholarship about Christian origins and papal isolationism against ecumenical and interfaith dialogue. His favourite term appears to be "simple believers." Allen argues that this means conservative Catholics without a higher educational background, and it certainly doesn't mean feminists, lesbians or gay men, Latin American peasants and impoverished, Muslims or other "outsiders." Happily, Benedict XVI is 78. As his predecessor died four years after that point, it is to be hoped that this pontiff won't be around to do too much damage to Catholic scholarship and adherence than he already has as CDF Prefect. See also: Vittorio Massouri: The Ratzinger Report: Ignatius Press: San Franscisco: 1985. Craig Young - 4th January 2006