Catholics & Hitler

Yesterday there was a post up by Mark at Proud Atheists titled, "Why Do Christians Insist That Hitler Was an Atheist?" He gives this claim a quick debunking. Today, Deutsche Welle reports that

A German bishop has told his Easter congregation that mass murder and other crimes committed by the Nazis are evidence that atheism is inhumane. His comments have caused outraged among German atheist organizations.

As Mark points out, there is no evidence that Hitler considered himself an atheist, and plenty of evidence to the contrary. He had a bizarre mix of religious and quasi-religious beliefs, and certainly wasn't acting based on atheism. All anyone has to do is read his writings and speeches to see that. And the Catholic Church, particularly its German branch, is one of the last entities that should be lecturing anyone about the Holocaust, let alone trying to blame it on atheism. The spinelessness of the Catholic Church, and in some cases willing cooperation in the face of Nazism has been well-documented. If anyone wants to look at the evidence, Saul Friedlander's exhaustive two-volume study, Nazi Germany and the Jews, provides plenty of damning details.