Barrett Garese

Even in our own lifetime, we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live. I also recall the regime’s attitude to Christian pastors and religious who spoke the truth in love, opposed the Nazis and paid for that opposition with their lives. As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a “reductive vision of the person and his destiny” (Caritas in Veritate, 29).

The Pope, from today’s speech in the UK

Ah history: it’s only for those who bother with A) Reading, and B) Reality. Don’t worry, The Pope repeating the completely fabricated claim that the Nazis were atheists is just par for the course. At this point I’m fairly convinced that the only people paying attention to the words coming from the papal “authority” are those who have such a fucked up and warped sense of morality that they’re somehow against or unwilling to prosecute child molesters (mainly because of the belief that some people are “above human law.”) Better still are the few who are against the distribution and usage of condoms in AIDS-ravaged locations because of the .17% chance that they won’t effectively stop the spread of the virus. I’m not real mathy, but I know good odds when I see them.

The biggest irony is that this bullshit “The Nazis, and by extension The Holocaust, happened because of Atheism” claim comes from a former member of the Hitler Youth (whose indoctrination oath ended with “so help me God.”)

But should one bother reading or knowing history, they might point out that the Nazis and the Catholic Church had their own treaty (negotiated with Hitler) which guaranteed, amongst other things:

The right to freedom of the Roman Catholic religion.
The oath of allegiance of the bishops: “Ich schwöre und verspreche, die verfassungsmässig gebildete Regierung zu achten und von meinem Klerus achten zu lassen” (English: I swear and vow to honor the constitutional government and to make my clergy honor it;)
Catholic religion is taught in school and teachers for Catholic religion can be employed only with the approval of the bishop.

But let’s not let logic, history or reality get in the way of religion, right? I mean, reading and writing was so antithetical to the existence of The Church, that it was occasionally banned (as was ownership of The Bible, or the translation of such into English.)

So since I can, in fact read and research, let’s quote Mein Kampf, shall we?

“… I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews. I am doing the Lord’s work.”

Maybe he’s faking it. Let’s check out a speech he gave in 1922 which was also later reproduced in one of his books:

My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God’s truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice… And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.

Well, that does sound convincing, but perhaps too convincing. I think Hitler doth protest too much, if you get my drift. What christian would proclaim so loudly and so often his love of Christ and christianity unless he was trying to hide something? Wait, didn’t the nazi troops march into battle wearing equipment which stated “Gott Mit Uns” or “God is with us” - that’s easily one of the sneakiest moves a closet atheist has ever made.

So how on earth is this myth still believed by anyone, let alone quoted by the pope? I don’t know. You’d think this sort of idiocy would have died out in the age of information. Maybe you just have to be the sort of person who’s willing to close their eyes and shut their ears to anything outside of that which is already pre-approved by an authority, regardless of morality, legality, or reality.

You know, like children.

But there I go again, bringing children into a conversation about the Catholic Church.

It’s probably just habit by this point.