Critics heap abuse on Benedict XVI

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'Nazi pope a clear and present danger to the civilized world,' read the headline of a reader's letter in a forum of NYTimes.com, the New York Times' Web site.

'Joseph Ratzinger, (is) a 78-year-old hidebound archconservative who ran the office that used to be called the Inquisition and who once belonged to Hitler Youth,' Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote.

'For American Catholics -- especially women and pro-choice Catholic pols -- the cafeteria is officially closed. After all, Cardinal Ratzinger, nicknamed 'God's Rottweiler' and 'the Enforcer,' helped deny Communion rights to John Kerry. ...'

It wasn't the worst abuse leveled at Pope Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, a German. Type the words 'Nazi pope' into the Google search line, and you will get nearly 700 mentions.

'Seig Heil, hail Mary!' read one post, misspelling the German word for victory, which is 'Sieg.'

'What can you expect from a filthy Nazi?' asked one blogger quoted, with horror, by National Review Online.

'They knock the Germans but they are motivated by their anti-Catholicism,' Catholic League President William Donohue proposed.

The term 'Nazi pope' in the New York Times caused dismay at the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith.

'We reject that outright,' ADL spokeswoman Myrna Shinebaum told UPI. Her national director, Abraham H. Foxman, had welcomed the cardinal's election.

'Cardinal Ratzinger has great sensitivity to Jewish history and the Holocaust. He has shown this sensitivity countless times,' Mr. Foxman said.