Actress Susan Sarandon is notorious for espousing liberal causes and bashing conservatives. Now, she is attacking the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI.
In a public interview with Bob Balaban at the Hamptons Film Festival, Sarandon told an audience that she had sent a copy of a book to Pope John Paul II. She then said: “The last Pope, not this Nazi one we have now.”
When chided by the interviewer, she repeated her statement.
The future Pope was forced to serve in the Hitler Youth at 14. But he was an unwilling participant, who deserted the German army before the war’s end.
Sarandon’s comments are even more baseless, due to the fact that Benedict XVI has striven to maintain good relations with the Jewish people during his Papal reign. He declared in 2006 to the Chief Rabbi of Rome: The Catholic Church is close and is a friend to you. Yes, we love you and we cannot but love you, because of the Fathers:through them you are very dear and beloved brothers to us.” Benedict also wrote in 2011 that Jews were not responsible for the death of Christ (reaffirming the 1965 Second Vatican Council document “Nostra Aetate”, which did the same).
The Anti-Defamation League called Sarandon’s words “disturbing, deeply offensive and completely uncalled for attack on the good name of Pope Benedict XVI.”
William Donohue of the Catholic League also blasted Sarandon’s comments, noting: “Susan Sarandon’s ignorance is willful: those who have hatred in their veins are not interested in the truth. The fact is that Joseph Ratzinger (the pope) was conscripted at the age of 14 into the Hitler Youth, along with every other young German boy. Unlike most of the other teenagers, Ratzinger refused to go to meetings, bringing economic hardship to his family. Moreover, unlike most of the others, he deserted at the first opportunity.”
Sarandon is legendary for her liberal commentary and activism. Now she can add anti-Catholic hate speech to her long resume of stupidity.
