BERLIN (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI says politicians must not sacrifice ethics for power and that the Nazi excesses of his homeland are a lesson in history.
In a speech to German parliament Thursday he told lawmakers that “we Germans know from our own experience” what happens when power is corrupted.
But he says that even in the Nazi dictatorship, resistance movements stuck to their beliefs at great risk, “thereby doing a great service to justice and to humanity as a whole.”
Even though protest groups had said that up to 20,000 demonstrators would be on hand to rally against the pope’s speech, only a few hundred had gathered in the capital’s Potsdamer Platz as it began. The pope’s trip to Germany runs through Sunday.
