Word: germanize
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...speak any foreign languages? I studied French in high school and German in college and I once took a 24-hour Italian crash course. English has by far the most words in it of any other language. Our money might not be worth anything anymore, but the language is. With everything else American going to pot, it's nice to know we've got a wonderfully rich language...
...German Pope's many gestures of goodwill toward Jews during his three-year papacy was to effectively suspend the internal Vatican process that leads to sainthood for Pius, citing a need for a "period of reflection." Now, however, Benedict appears to have finished his own reflecting on the historical virtues of the Italian Pope who reigned from 1939 to 1958. At a special Mass on Thursday marking 50 years since Pius' death, Benedict praised his wartime predecessor's actions to save Jews and called on Catholics to "pray that the cause of his beatification goes forward smoothly." Beatification...
...Thursday's Mass in Rome, Benedict lavished praise on Pius, who was the Pope when the then young German first became a priest. Like those who have actively campaigned for his beatification, the Pope said that Pius used a few pointed public - but mostly private - acts of diplomacy to try to prevent what turned into the slaughter of 6 million European Jews. He cited Pius' 1942 Christmas radio message. "With a voice broken with emotion, he deplored the situation of 'hundreds of thousands of persons who, for no fault of their own, only for reason of nationality or ethnic roots...
Benedict's own German heritage and forced service in the Nazi military as a teenager have made his rapport with Jews of keen interest. Like John Paul II, the current Pope appears to have a particularly warm rapport with Jewish leaders, and repeatedly refers to the theological and historical bonds from the Old Testament. The Pope has set aside time for visits to synagogues on several foreign trips, and even extensively cited an American rabbi in his book last year about Jesus...
Still, several issues have arisen over the past three years that have caused friction. Benedict's visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 2006 was much appreciated, but less so the speech he gave there, which referred to the Nazis as a "ring of criminals," roundly absolving the German people as simply victims of their leaders. Another decision last year to promote the old Latin rite liturgy, which includes a Good Friday prayer that calls for the conversion of the Jews, was also widely criticized by Jewish leaders...