Why do people say that Hitler was Catholic when he renounced being one as a young adult?

Question

He actually identified himself more as a Protestant Christian because Protestantism enabled him to invent his own form of "Christianity" that allowed him to kill any one that opposed him, including Jews and Catholics.

The KKK is the same way, that's why, like Hitler, they hate Catholics.

Hitler's religious beliefs
Main articles: Adolf Hitler's religious beliefs and Nazi Mysticism
Hitler was raised by Roman Catholic parents, but as a school boy he rejected Catholicism as he was influenced by nationalism. Apparently, after Hitler left home, he never attended Mass or received the Sacraments.[55]
In later life, Hitler's religious beliefs present a discrepant picture: Publicly he often spoke positively of the Christian heritage of German culture and belief in Christ. Hitler’s private statements, reported by his intimates, are more mixed, showing Hitler as a religious man but also critical of Christianity.[56] However, in contrast to other Nazi leaders, Hitler did not adhere to esoteric ideas, occultism, or neo-paganism,[56] and ridiculed such beliefs in his book Mein Kampf.[citation needed] Rather, Hitler advocated a "Positive Christianity", a belief system purged from what he objected to in traditional Christianity, and reinvented Jesus as a fighter against the Jews.

Hitler believed in Arthur de Gobineau's ideas of struggle for survival between the different races, among which the "Aryan race"—guided by "Providence"—was supposed to be the torchbearers of civilization and the Jews as enemies of all civilization. Whether his anti-semitism was influenced by older Christian ideas remains disputed.
Among Christian denominations, Hitler favored Protestantism, which was more open to such reinterpretations.[citation needed] At the same time, he made use of some elements of the Catholic Church's hierarchical organization, liturgy and phraseology in his politics.[57][58]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler#Hitler.27s_religious_beliefs

Answer 1

In addition to renouncing Catholicism, Hitler was excommunited from the Catholic Church.

Automatic excommunication happens when Catholics commit certain offensives. This happens as soon as the offense is committed.

Adolf Hitler committed the following offenses resulting in automatic excommunication:
- Apostasy - the formal renunciation of one's religion. Hitler specifically rejected the Catholic Church, as well as Christianity in general. He described himself as "a complete pagan.”
- Heresy - a doctrine in theology, religion, philosophy, or politics at variance with those of the Catholic Church. Nazism is definitely heretical to Christianity.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Great question. Even though the premise of your argument and your defense of your own question strongly shows your personal belief that Hitler should not be regarded as Catholic it has produced some interesting answers.

Judging by your educated answers, I assume you have some good general grasp of Catholic doctrine. So you therefore must know that once confirmed as Catholic, you can't be "unmade" a Catholic, even if you renounce your beliefs and/or cease to attend church.

Only by being excommunicated can you technically (by Canon Law) cease to be a Catholic.

So many of your answerers who said this and have been marked down, were 100% correct. It also means your detailed edits to your question have no real bearing on the truth.

Now the answer that most intrigues me, because it is the first time I have seen an obviously well educated Catholic apologist attempt to make this claim- is that Hitler was excommunicated.

This is not the official position of the Vatican. The Vatican has no official position on the Catholic status of Hitler as it refuses to discuss Hitler.

Nor, does the "automatic excommunication" work without completing the process. It's a bit like taking a piece of criminal law and saying- "OJ is a murderer and should be on death row"- sure. But what about the process?

Until the Pope, any Pope or Cardinal finally decrees Hitler excommunicated, he remains in effect a Catholic, even to this day. Sorry.

Answer 3

A real good book if Karl Stern's Pillar of Fire.
Stern was a German Jew brought up as a Reform Jew, later became orthodox and went into Hasidism. He moved to Canada and became a psychiatrist. He met Jacques Maritain and became Catholic.
He said once he talked to a young German Nazi and the young Nazi told him that the anti semitism of the Nazis was bascially anti-Christian. They felt that this strange desert religion that had its root in Judaism, that taught love and forgiveness had weakened the Teutonic people. He said Judaism is a witness to Christianity.
A number of prominent Germans after WW I including von Ludendorff, vonHinderburg's adjutant started worshipping and offering sacrifice, to the Teutonic gods. Ludendorff became a Nazi.
The music of the Third Reich was that of Richard Wagner whose operattas glorified the worship of the Teutonic Gods and their animal sacrifice.
Wagner was a close friend of Friedrick NIetzsche,
the philospher,who challenged traditional morality and Christianity. He also put forth the racial theories of Teutonic superiority.
You can get the book from Amazon.Com. if you have never read it.

Answer 4

It's anti-Catholic propaganda. Some of it comes from American Jews (Israeli scholars are not at all propagandistic),but mostly atheists who are just out to defame the Church and all of Christianity by extension. Those people are such hypocrites they won't even accept Stalin as one of their own,or admit that 1920's atheists considered Stalinist Russia to be a true atheist dream state.

Answer 5

In his method Stalin used to be one more Hitler, and Stalin lasted longer in vigor, and died of historic age, nonetheless in vigor. Stalin used to be dependable of Soviet Russia, an excessively robust country. Since that point there were a number of dictators dependable of international locations that have had broad have an effect on, e.g.Ghaddafi in Libya (small country by way of populace, however enormous have an effect on considering that of oil), Mao Tse Tung in China and Saddam Hussein in Iraq (oil, once more, and appear on the chaos in Iraq due to the fact that he used to be deposed). Nobody can expect the longer term, however I might no longer be amazed to discover a dictator in a identical role to Hitler at a while.

Answer 6

See Source, below (same as above, same editing technique):

"My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter..."

For example, on March 23, 1933, Hitler addressed the Reichstag: "The National Government regards the two Christian confessions as factors essential to the soul of the German people. ... We hold the spiritual forces of Christianity to be indispensable elements in the moral uplift of most of the German people.

At one point he described his religious status: "I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so."[7] Hitler never formally ended his church membership.

In an attempt to justify Nazi intolerance he recommends militantism, which he associates with the rise of Christianity, which he calls "the first spiritual terror", as a model for the Nazis in their pursuit of power - arguing that "coercion is broken only by coercion, and terror only by terror"

Answer 7

You need to read the book Hitler wrote, Mein Kampf. Inside, he claims that he was doing gods work. Go do some actual study.

Answer 8

Does it really matter?

So what if he was Catholic, the Nazi regime didn't do the things it did in the name of Catholocism, the Nazis did it all in the name of National Socialism!

Just like Stalin didn't do his purges in the name of Atheism, but in the name of Stalinism, his distorted view of Communism.

Answer 9

Actually, after Mein Kampf was written and he was in full control, he was a well-documented occultist. The History Channel has done numerous documentaries on this.

Answer 10

Hitler was a Anti-Christ. Hitler was pure evil.