So on his official visit to the UK the Pope apparently said:
“we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society […] As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century“
Now compare that with some quotes from Hitler (who knew a thing or two about Nazi Germany) on atheism:
“We were convinced that the people needs and requires this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.“
“ We have put an end to denial of God and abuse of religion.“
“ National Socialism neither opposes the Church nor is it anti-religious, but on the contrary, it stands on the ground of a real Christianity.“
Finally this classic from the lead up to the Nazi-Vatican Concordat of 1933:
“Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith.“
Doesn’t sound very atheistic to me..
I am not a happy taxpayer!
We might also recall that when Britain and her leaders stood against the Nazis he was in fact one of them. OK, so we shouldn’t hold it against him that he was in the Hitler Youth – he was below years of discretion – but we should at least note that with him at least any atheism involved in the Hitler message didn’t seem to take.