Initially, there was no discussion of a book project, but Reisegger informed Monsignore Clemens on Oct. 6, 1997 that instead of printing the essay in the monthly magazine, it was possible that a “special issue on the topic of 1848″ would be printed in order to take a “critical look at liberalism, freemasonry,” and “the Revolution of 1848.” Reisegger made no mention of who would edit this book.
Nevertheless, the mere mention of the name of this Austrian publishing house alone should have set off alarm bells throughout the Vatican. Only three years earlier, Aula had made headlines well beyond the borders of Austria. The magazine’s editor, Herwig Nachtmann, had come out in support of Holocaust denier Walter Lüftl. In his article “The Laws of Nature Apply to both Nazis and Anti-Fascists,” the head of Aula praised Lüftl’s report — called “Holocaust, Belief and Facts,” published in 1992 — as a “milestone on the road to truth.” The resulting bad publicity even prompted Jörg Haider’s far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) — which had until then used Aula as a party organ — to distance itself from the magazine and its publisher, and to discontinue all financial support.
Whether this went unnoticed in the Vatican is, however, not the decisive question. The fact is that the Ratzinger text itself contains disturbing passages. Under the headline “Criticism of Democracy,” the cardinal writes: “The feeling that democracy is not yet the right form of freedom is fairly common and is increasingly widespread…. How free are elections? … Is there not an oligarchy of those who decide what is modern and progressive, what an enlightened individual should think? … And what of the decision-making process in the bodies of democratic representation? … Who could doubt the power of interest groups, whose dirty hands are increasingly visible? And is the system of a majority and a minority really a system of freedom in the first place?”
In the eyes of the Aula staff, so much mistrust of democracy apparently marked the beginning of a beautiful friendship. When the cardinal was elected as pope, they rejoiced: “Hail to your arrival, protector of the devout. As a Hitler Youth and a member of the anti-aircraft corps, he protected his people against the Anglo-American bomb holocaust! Is the Holy Father now fighting with determination against the baby holocaust?”
http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=20352
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