American actress Susan Sarandon called Pope Benedict a Nazi during a public discussion at a U.S. film festival in New York, provoking fury from Catholic and Jewish groups, stirring controversy nonetheless.
Catholic civil rights activists are not taking Susan Sarandon’s label of the pope as a ‘Nazi’ lightly, calling the remark ‘positively obscene’. Oscar winner Hollywood star Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking), 65, condemned also by Hindus for reportedly labeling His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI as a Nazi.
Actress Susan Sarandon labelled Pope Benedict a Nazi during a public discussion at a U.S. film festival in New York at the weekend. Catholic League president Bill Donohue explained the remarks’ origin saying ‘Joseph Ratzinger [the current pope] was conscripted into the Nazi Youth the way every other 14-year-old German boy was at the time.
Pope is not a Nazi, was from Nazi Youth
Bill Donohue continued ”Unlike most others, he not only refused to go to the compulsory meetings. He actually deserted the Hitler Youth! Which is precisely why Jews today regard him as a friend, not as an enemy.”
Susan Sarandon told an interviewer at the Hamptons Film Festival of having previously sent the pope a copy of the book, Dead Man Walking, though stopped to clarify which pope she meant. ‘The last one, not this Nazi one we have now,’ she corrected. But her interviewer expressed a gentle disapproval in return. To either prompt or relieve a light-hearted audience, Susan Sarandon said it again to laughter from the crowd. ‘Darling, your new Pope is a Nazi”
Representatives for the current Pope Benedict XVI do acknowledge his membership in the Hitler Youth, however, as a small German boy.
Susan Sarandon and Politics
Among the other politically heavy discussions activist Susan Sarandon maintained are ‘ the Occupy Wall Street protests ‘ currently taking place in lower Manhattan, which are getting global. She also spoke of her former run-ins with the New York Police Department over the shooting of Guinea immigrant, Amadou Diallo in 1999.
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