POSITIEF ATHEÏSME

Peter van Montfoort         Click here for Dutch version

 

 ‘How it can be justified and opportune to employ lies as medicine, and as a cure for those who want to be misled.’

Church historian Eusebius, bishop of Ceasarea, Palestine, in his Preaparatio Evangelica, book 12, chapter 32.

  So, lying for the church appears to be a christian virtue, and this working of  the christian mind was demonstrated once again very convincingly in an article in NRC Handelsblad on December 24th, 2005.

 The reporter had recently visited an exposition on christian art, and apparently still being inspired by the Holy Spirit in this Christmas season, he saw fit to end his article with this remarkable and wholly out-of-context burp:

           ‘The most murderous movements of the twentieth century, communism and nazism, were
            atheistic and that should bring about a sense of modesty.’  

 Now, when simple Christians, not versed in historical facts or having had the benefit of a broader education should commit a blunder like this, it might be understandable, and we might forgive them for it. For in their Bible they read:  

           ‘However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands
            and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: The
            LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering
            to possess. The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with
            scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish.’
            Deuteronomy 28:15, 21, 22

 For if the loving God wishes all these things upon atheists, atheists must be very bad people indeed, and by reverse reasoning (‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’) all bad people could be nothing but atheists. However, when an editor of a leading national newspaper, of whom we might expect a certain minimum level of education, is allowed to disgrace both himself and his paper with a text like this, we have to assume that we are dealing here with the spirit of Eusebius. Do we now also have to show compassion here? Should we allow every Christian to earn his promised place in heaven by any devious means? Even by fraud and libel?

 Denying the Holocaust earned a British historian his place in an Austrian prison a few years ago, but is denial of the fact that Hitler – the architect of this crime - was a devout Christian not also a serious crime with the same evil intent?

 After a letter of protest to the editors about this misleading text (which of course was neither placed nor answered), said article was at least removed from the digital archive of this paper, and rightly so.

 With the following pictures we will present some examples of the ever-present close co-operation between the Vatican and Nazism, and with various other dictators all over the world. This is not surprising. Both institutions have much in common; both religion and other dictatorships derive their power over the masses from propaganda and intimidation. And since in our modern society secular laws have greatly restricted the previous absolute power of medieval popes and their successors, the church stands much to gain from synergy with newly emerging dark powers.

 To combat deceptive religious propaganda like the above, which even a ‘liberal’ newspaper in the twenty-first century still employs, hereby a number of historic pictures, because one picture can tell more than a thousand words.

 

Vaticaan and Hitler

                                              

 Left: The moving closing moment of a Nazi party in Vienna ‘Let us pray .....’

 Right: Hitler poses in front of the Church of Our Lady in Nürnberg. September, 1934

 

 Quote: ‘I am convinced to be working on behalf of our Creator. 

By combatting Jews, I perform the work of the LORD.’ “Mein Kampf”, 1925

 

 Above: Pacelli, the later Pope Pius XII, Secretary of State for the Vatican, signs the Concordate between Nazi Germany and the Vatican on July 20th, 1933. Nazi Vice-Chancellor von Papen is sitting on the left. The Concordate legitimized Hitler convincingly in the eyes of the Roman-catholic church.

                         

 Left: Hitler welcomes a Roman-catholic cardinal at a propaganda rally of the Nazi party.

 Right: Hitler is leaving the church of the Navy at Wilhelmshafen. Note the carefully selected position under the cross, to illustrate Hitlers “Divine Calling”.

 Above: Hitlers ‘Brown Army’ (the SA – Sturm Abteilung) during attendance and at departing from a Roman-catholic church. Pictures from a propaganda leaflet entitled ‘Das Braune Heer, mit einem geleitwort von Adolf Hitler’ (‘The Brown Army, with an introduction by Adolf Hitler’).

                                           

 Left: Archbishop Orsenigo congratulates Hitler on the occasion of his birthday on April 20th, 1939. This tradition was established in 1935 by Pacelli, the later pope Pius XII. 

 Right: Hitler autographs for a pious fan.

 

  Above: Cardinal Bertram in a procession, with a guard of honour of Hitlers Wehrmacht.

 

 Above: Priests at a Roman-catholic youth rally in the Berlin-Neuköln Stadium in August, 1933.

 

 Above: Roman-catholic bishops bringing the Hitler salute. On the far right Joseph Goebbels, Nazi minister of Propaganda.

 

 Vatican and Franco

       

 Left: The papal nuntius Gaetano Cicognani receives Generalissimo Franco.

 Right: Pius XII thanks Franco for the the victory the Roman-catholic church wanted so dearly. And not a word was said about the 600.000 war victims!

 Above: Afterward a telegram was sent to the chairman of the German Nazi party, in which Pacelli transmitted ‘the best wishes from the protecting heavens and the blessing of Almighty God”. From the beginning of his office Pius XII stressed that Hitler was the legitimate leader of Germany, and that those who disobeyed him were sinners.

 

 Above: Franco with cardinal Seguray Saiez.

 

 Vatican and Mussolini

                 

 Left: Februari 11th, 1929 – Mussolini and cardinal Gasparri sign the Lateran Treaty, in which the independency of Vatican City was established, and her sovereignty officially proclaimed.

Right: Pius XII (Pacelli, by historians often called ‘Hitlers Pope’) together with Mussolini in ceremonial dress.

 

 Vatican and Videla

                     

 Left: Videla was de dictator of Argentina between 1976 and 1983. The regime became notorious because of the 30.000 people ‘disappearing’, the kidnapping of babies and the horrible tortures of its opponents in what came to be called ‘the dirty war’. Here Videla receives the ambassador of the pope. 

 Right: The weekly protest demonstration of the ‘Foolish Mothers’.

 

 Vatican and Pinochet

          

 Above: Pope John Paul II on a state visit to Chile. During Pinochet’s regime approximately 3.000 political opponents were murdered.

                        

 Left: The warm friendship between both dictators is obvious.

 Right: Contrary to diplomatic usance, this pope preferred to stay in his friend’s palace.

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See also: 'The Vatican Ratline'

More by this author:

   ➤ 'A Blasphemer's Prayer'
   ➤ 'The glorification of an instrument of torture'
   ➤ 'The negative effect of church on society'
   ➤ 'Thoughts on the creation, development and maintenance of gods'