Goldhagen may say that he is not declaring Benedict's "imperial certitude" to be as comparably horrible as the Nazis', but it is completely apparent that he distrusts Benedict and wishes others to do the same. This arcticle is dangerous in the way Goldhagen presents himself as an unbiased man simply talking about the new Pope, when really Goldhagen himself is the son of a Jewish man who survived the Holocaust (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Goldhagen). Clearly he has some biases yet he refused to alert his audience of this.
Goldhagen is attempting to plant seeds of doubt about the Pope while keeping himself safely hidden away from the spot light. Goldhagen should not be comparing Benedict to the Nazis when he has showed no interest in anything even remotely similar to Hitler's way of doing things. Of course Benedict would like the whole world to convert to Catholicism, but that does not mean he is going to kill people to get that way. That path of action would completely go against the values of Christianity which are precisely what the Pope stands for. Pope Benedict simply desires what every religiously devout leader wants: to share his truth which he believes is the Truth. He does not want people to convert so he can have power; he wants them to convert so they can be saved and have salvation. Hitler's drive was for power, and it is insulting to compare him to one of today's most honored religious figures.
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I never really thought to research Goldhagen's background. The fact that his father was a survivor of the Holocaust and he completely fails to mention that in his article is quite interesting. This also changes the dynamics of his argument. Maybe it is Goldhagen's critical thinking skills that should be questioned and not Pope Benedict's.
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