If you assumed that the Catholic church excommunicated former alter boy and genocidal mass murderer Adolf Hitler, you would be wrong. Hitler’s mother was a Roman Catholic and raised young Adolf to be one too. In 1941, Adolf Hitler told Gerhard Engel, one of his generals, that “I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so.”
The Vatican recently excommunicated a doctor and the mother of a 9-year-old Brazilian girl that was raped by her step-father. The reason? Because the poor girl was pregnant (with twins) and received and abortion. The doctor performed the abortion, and was excommunicated because of it. The mother consented to the abortion, and was excommunicated because of it. The step-father that raped his 9-year-old step-daughter was not excommunicated.
Other national leaders have been excommunicated by the Catholic church. Napoleon Bonaparte was excommunicated by Pope Pius VII in 1809. Fidel Castro was excommunicated by Pope John XXIII in 1962 for simply being a communist.
If Communists can be excommunicated, why can’t Nazis?
scott
/ April 17, 2009racist church
Lila
/ June 16, 2009The church isn’t racist just because the leadership in the 1940s made a mistake in not formally expelling a genocidal dictator from the community. It was completely stupid, but it wasn’t the first time the Catholic Church has made a mistake, and it won’t be the last. Moreover, a church is made up of the people in it, and I’m pretty sure the guys in charge in the 1940s are long dead. (I don’t like Benedict either, but please don’t bring up Hitler Youth. He joined the same year that not being a member became illegal.)
Rick
/ June 16, 2009The Church can excommunicate Hitler now, yet they choose not to. Why is that? Is it because the current Pope used to serve Hitler? Seems to me that if they can excommunicate the mother of 9-year old rape victims, they can excommunicate Adolf Hitler.
What better way for the Pope to send a message that he is no long a Nazi than to excommunicate his former leader, the man that “forced” him to join the Hitler Youth?
Lee B.
/ June 16, 2009Agreeing with Rick, emphatically. Excommunicating Hitler now would go a long way in cleansing both Germany as a nation and the Catholic church of past horrors to a certain degree, and provide a clean break between the Pope and the barbarian he served in his youth.
BTW- my grandfather was a an American soldier and POW in Nazi Germany- thankfully he survived, and was not Jewish.
Dennis G.
/ June 18, 2009I never saw Pope Pius XII as a heroic figure but a rather cowardly and self serving one and in my opinion was not interested in opposing Hitler for three reasons (1) basically he was afraid of Hitler (2) He wanted to preserve the Catholic Church with himself as head of it (3) He made private deals early on with Hitler after he was appointed Chancellor to keep his mouth shut and not oppose him in order to leave him head of the Church. His so called opposition to Communism had little to do with it but self preservation was his main motivation. Pious did very little to help Jews in any fashion before, during or after the war. Pope Pious never even publicly condemned Hitler or the Nazis for executing Catholic priests nor nuns. If that isn’t a coward I don’t know what is. As a religious leader he was cowardly and as a Christian he was PATHETIC. The Catholic Church would have been better served if he had taken exile in England and communicated by radio with the faithful and excommunicated Hitler by radio announcement but what he did in reality was no different than Marshal Petain in France..Pope Pious XII was simply a collaborator.
Dennis G.
/ June 18, 2009Now that I think of it. Excommunicating Hitler is not the main issue here. It would do more good if the Catholic Church excommunicated Pope Pious XII FOR NOT EXCOMMUNICATING HITLER THEN THAN EXCOMMUNICATING HITLER NOW.
Stanley James
/ December 9, 2009Hitler was baptised, which makes him a catholic. And he often spoke about God and Providence. BTW, there is a body of thought, eg the long out of print book “I was hitler’s doctor ” is an example, where evidence suggests that hitler was the bastard son of a Jew.
What else in very catholic Austria could have been worse. So hitler hated himself for whom he “was”. And like most haters, he reflected out his self hatred on the Jews, in an attempt to get rid of his own guilt. Guilt from a church that preys on guilt to control minds. Guilt they drive through the confession ritual.
Why didn’t the church ever excommunicate him – because they were the institution that for over a thousand years propagated the hatred of the Jews, as Christ Killers, people who drank the blood of infants etc. And hitler was poisoned by this church growing up in very catholic Austria. Go read Mein Kampf if you have the guts.
But the real reason the church didn’t excommunicate hitler was that then they would have had to excommunicate the church. For it was the church that gave the world the hatred of the Jews. A hatred that Hitler leveraged into election as the leader of germany.
And 50 million died for the long term sin of the church re the Jews. Jesus own people.
It is that simple.
Estimates are that up to 15% of Catholics in the USA are lapsed, and have nothing to do with the church.
The number should be 80%, for the people who believe that Jesus, himself a Jew, loved all of God’s creation. We’ll allow that there are 20% of American Catholics so thoroughly mind controlled from an early age, that nothing can be done with them, except to ignore them and their church.
Ryan
/ December 10, 2009@Stanley James: Well said.
Cody
/ January 1, 2010It’s called no one knew about the holocaust.
Ryan
/ January 2, 2010@Cody: Wtf does that mean?
siriunsun
/ January 4, 2010The mother of the nine year old prolly doesn’t mean a lot to the Catholic church because she isn’t wealthy. Women also don’t mean a lot to that church. And……..there ARE still people in Europe who do not have a problem with Hitler. You really have to look at exactly who these people are, who identify with Hitler enough to keep him. There are people right here in this country(USA) who don’t have any problems with Hitler, and who tell me they are Christians. Kinda makes ya wonder. Not excommunincating someone who rapes a nine year old makes me wonder…….unless they think the mother should have killed him with her favorite kitchen knife, instead. Christianity seems to have a lot of conflicts between it’s dogma, it’s scriptures, and it’s actual day to day practices.