POPE BENEDICT XVI has praised the Britons who fought the “evil ideology” of nazism in World War II.

“For me, as one who lived and suffered through the dark days of the Nazi regime in Germany, it is deeply moving to be here with you on this occasion, and to recall how many of your fellow citizens sacrificed their lives courageously resisting the forces of that evil ideology” said the Pontiff at a mass in Cofton Park, Birmingham.

The Pope was a member of the Hitler Youth Movement during the war, and had a cousin who was killed during the Nazi programme of eugenics. He chose today to speak about the war as it is the seventieth anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

“My thoughts go in particular to nearby Coventry, which suffered such heavy bombardment and massive loss of life in November 1940.”  Pope Benedict was also conscripted into the Nazi armed forces towards the end of the war, but deserted.

The Pope had been speaking at the beatification for Cardinal John Henry Newman, a personal hero of his- saying he was there to ”give glory and praise to God for the heroic virtue of a saintly Englishman”.

“He is worthy to take his place in a long line of saints and scholars from these islands,” he said before comparing the Victorian cleric to some of Britain’s greatest religious intellectuals, including Saint Bede and the Blessed Duns Scotus.