Benedict XVI to visit Auschwitz

Hot potato, this. Ratzinger was too old to participate in the regime as anything more than, well, a minor. Is this the generation that will be absolved of war crimes? Moreover, is this the time and place to test that?

So yeah, the Ratz is probably not going to play this one German. There'll just be a lot of Papal bon mots about how this kind of suffering both should never have happened and tests us to our utmost, etc., plus he'll take a little blame. The best technique for this variety of German guilt is to take the punch and keep moving. It's working more and more these days.

There are some potential pitfalls for the Pope during this visit. Maybe they'll bring up the Vatican's silence during the Holocaust. Here's an article that gives some pretty plausible reasons why that happened. What would Jesus do (or have done)? Well, he probably would have gotten himself deposed and killed. But that's his time to shine.