Pope decries secularism, links atheists to Nazis

On September 16, Pope Benedict began a State Visit to the United Kingdom and immediately showed himself to be devoid of both historical knowledge and common decency. After one advisor, Cardinal Walter Kasper, was removed from the trip after referring to the UK as a "third world nation" that is in the grips of "a new and aggressive atheism," Benedict managed to insult Britons, atheists, and rational thinkers the world over.

Standing next to the Queen, the Pope delivered a highly-politicized speech that was long on intolerance and hatred and short on accuracy. The Pope used this speech to warn Britain about "aggressive forms of secularism" and "atheist extremism" in society. He recounted Britain's stand against the Nazis, then stated "As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the Twentieth Century."

In a few short sentences, Benedict threw down a gauntlet by linking the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany with atheism. While, to be fair to the Pope, the Nazis had no real love for Catholics, Nazi Germany was a religious state. The Nazis drew upon both Christianity and Pagan influences. Nazi paraphernelia proudly proclaimed Gott mit uns (God with us). Nazi propaganda routinely referred to political enemies as atheists as a means to vilify them, and Hitler himself is reported by at least one close aid to have confirmed his Catholicism late into the war.

Not only has the Pope bought into the lie that the Nazis were atheists, but apparently he has forgotten the history of an organization he was part of, both as a member of the Hitler Youth and as a member of an anti-aircraft gun crew.

Benedict did not stop there, however. He continued to state that "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, " and he exhorts his audience not to forget "those traditional values and cultural expressions that more aggressive forms of secularism no longer value or even tolerate."

One can only wonder what traditional values and cultural expressions the Pope thinks are in danger of no longer being tolerated. Does that list include the continued molestation of children? The continued cover-up of those crimes? Asking his god to protect the perpetrators of those crimes, but not their victims? Or does it only includes the continued devastation in Africa, made worse by the Catholic Church lying about the efficacy of condoms? Or the withholding of medically necessary treatments to protect life?

In any case, the Pope has clearly missed the mark. It is these traditional values that lead to a "truncated vision of man and of society."

The most humorous section of the speech, however, was when the Pope told his audience that they should not forget "the Christian foundation that underpins [Britain's] freedoms." Perhaps Benedict should take some remedial history lessons so that he might learn that it was the abuses of a Catholic extremist, James II, that led to the creation of the English Bill of Rights. That this Bill of Rights placed limits on those rights granted to non-protestants. Or even that said document stated that it had been "found by experience that it is inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant kingdom to be governed by a popish prince, or by any king or queen marrying a papist." Of course, this says nothing of the secular and atheistic nature of the Enlightenment, which extended the rights and freedoms of all.