Ya gotta love the Pope's ability to lie so blatantly and shamelessly in his rather desperate attempt to rewrite history.
Apparently, according to the Pope, atheism is the source of all of the problems in the 20th century including German Fascism and the Holocaust.
"He said: "Even in our own lifetimes 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.
"As we reflect on the sobering lessons of atheist extremism
of the 20th 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 a reductive vision of a person and
his destiny.""
He has apparently and quite conveniently "forgotten" that Hitler was a Catholic, advocated his own form of Christianity, Positive Christianity, and the Catholic Church actively collaborated with him up to and including ensuring the Enabling Act of 1933 was passed which resulted in Hitler gaining absolute power and led to everything that occurred afterwards including the Holocaust.
It's times like this that I sincerely wonder if the ability to tell bald-faced lies is a component part of being a Christian.
And isn't lying supposed to be a "Sin" according to the Christian belief system?
8. You shall not bear false witness against your
neighbor.
I guess it's okay to "bear false witness" against atheists in the Pope's version of the Ten Commandments.
Perhaps he doesn't consider us "neighbors"?
References to the actual facts:
Christianity and German Fascism: a Knol
No Beliefs dot Com Research On Hitler
List of Hitler quotes — in honor of the papal visit to the UK by Pharyngula
Article 16 of the Konkordat signed by the Catholic Church and Hitler in 1933.
"
Article 16, required that Catholic bishops swear to honor the Nazi
government, to make their subordinates honor it, and to HUNT FOR and
prevent action that might endanger it."
The Holocaust should never be forgotten but neither should the key role that Christianity played in both Nazi Germany and the events that led up to the Holocaust.
And may I take this opportunity to point out that it was the atheists (the German FreeThinkers movement) that were the very first targets of Hitlers fascism.
