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Hi Peter
[With apologies to those Goanetters who may be absolutely bored of this
issue by now. Hopefully this will be my last post on this topic, so please
bear with me!]
Sorry I took longer to reply to your post than intended. Out of curiosity, I
got reading the full texts of many of Hitler's speeches and these took ages.
They definitely confirm my contention that Hitler was a Catholic,
irrespective of the general consensus that, he was a monster and an
extremely obnoxious character responsible for WW2 and the murder of
millions.
1. Although you did not explain why you found my original statement about
Hitler as a Catholic to be a source of humour, you have basically agreed
with me that Hitler was a Catholic. You called him a cultural Catholic.
This is fine by me. Thank you. I had of course gone beyond your description.
From the historical evidence-- his declared belief in God, Jesus and
Catholicism is very clear even though we can never truly know, as with
anybody else, what exactly he believed within his Catholic faith. I am
however
well satisfied that he was misguided in his faith, just as Osama bin Laden
is, with regard to his stated devotion to Islam. While some Goanetters are
happy to refer to Bin Laden as an Islamo Fascist, I am in absolute agreement
with Aristo that Hitler was a Catholic Fascist and in good company with
other WW2 Catholic Fascists like Franco (helped greatly by Hitler in the
Spanish Civil War), and Mussolini.
So now, let's look at some differences in our interpretations about Hitler
the Catholic! Conjectures and refutations, as in science, are the very stuff
of the historical process. And as knowledge is provisional because it is
continuously evolving and changing, (as distinct from useful and necessary,
'Western' formulaic working facts like 2+2=4) there is always room for much
re-examination of facts and interpretations to be able to have a fruitful
discussion on any topic.
But before we do this, I'd like to clarify a misunderstanding from my
earlier statement on Goanet (but not linked to you) that, all knowledge is
provisional. This has been seemingly provocative to at least one
particularly vociferous poster on Goanet. That all knowledge is provisional
does not mean that it is not possible to arrive at a consensus about aspects
of what is true and not true. Nor is there an acceptance that everything is
relative, nor that consensual truth is provisional, or that historians
merely re-define facts. Historians and all people in the knowledge industry,
re-examine data continuously, not re-define it, except exceptionally. The
recent example of Pluto, or about the contested view about who actually won
in Lebanon, notwithstanding the cover page of the recent Economist that,
Hizbullah did, illustrates my point about provisionality at any historical
time. Above all, it is difficult to be dogmatic about most things outside
the realm of belief. Healthy scepticism and criticality are most valued in
our over-arching knowledge industry today. I therefore hope this provides
some clarification to at least one poster who has been inclined to be rather
over-reliant on commonsense instead of being better read and informed as I
believe you definitely are!
2. To reiterate, I had said that:
a) Hitler was born and nurtured a Catholic, b) is on record in his own words
and the words of his close associates that he was a Catholic, c) practised
every public aspect of Catholicism such as church attendance, taking the
sacraments, and faithfully paying his dues (taxes) to the Catholic Church,
d) was never excommunicated, e) had a productive working relationship with
the Vatican, minimally, through a Concordant, f) instituted the Double
Cross used in the Church which constituted the Swastika superimposed on the
Crucifix, g) that there is a huge quantity of photographic evidence to
confirm much of the above.
All such empirical evidence does make it much easier to 'prove' that Hitler
was a Catholic rather than to 'prove' that he was not a Catholic which
clearly requires an appeal to untestable faith issues.
3. In turn, whilst stating that Hitler was a cultural Catholic, you said
that the word Christian meant different things in different parts of the
world and illustrated this with reference to America, England, India and
Lebanon. I do not dispute this at all. However, all my claims about Hitler
centred
