World | Angela Merkel Pope's Bro to Merkel: Chill Out Ratzinger says German leader's call for pontiff to clarify Holocaust stance is 'irrational' By Nick McMaster Posted Feb 4, 2009 1:13 PM CST Copied In this photo released by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI, greets his brother Georg Ratzinger, right, in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, HO) The pope’s brother today criticized Angela Merkel for demanding that Benedict XVI restate his views on the Holocaust amid the controversy over a reinstated priest, the Times of London reports. “I always saw her as a rational woman,” Georg Ratzinger—himself a Catholic priest—said of the German chancellor. “But perhaps at the moment she is under pressure to say something irrational.” Merkel had called for a “clarification” of the pontiff’s stance on the Holocaust in light of the reinstatement of British Bishop Richard Williamson, who has denied that Jews died in Nazi gas chambers. A Vatican spokesman countered that Benedict’s condemnation of Williamson could “not have been clearer.” Read These Next SCOTUS sounds skeptical about law banning gay conversion therapy. Felix Baumgartner's death attributed to his own error. Robin Williams' daughter: AI clips of him are 'disturbing' You might want to take mass transit instead of driving in this city. Report an error