General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This message was self-deleted by its author [View all]coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)gem from our friends at Wikipedia re Pope Pius XII and Hitler. Note the sanitized language:
"The Reichskonkordat was a treaty between the Holy See and Nazi Germany, that guaranteed the rights of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was signed on 20 July 1933 by Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli (who later became Pope Pius XII) and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen on behalf of Pope Pius XI and President Paul von Hindenburg respectively. The Reichskonkordat is the most controversial of several concordats agreed between various states and the Vatican during the reign of Pope Pius XI and is frequently discussed in works that deal with the rise of Hitler in the early 1930s and the Holocaust. The concordat has been described as giving moral legitimacy to the Nazi regime soon after Hitler had acquired dictatorial powers, and placing constraints on Catholic critics of the regime, leading to a muted response by the Church to Nazi policies. From a Roman Catholic church perspective it has been argued that the concordat prevented even greater evils being unleashed against the Church. Though the German bishops were unenthusiastic, and the Allies felt it was inappropriate, Pope Pius XII argued to keep the concordat at the end of World War II and the treaty is still in force today."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichskonkordat
When the guy upthread implied that KH could have 'done worse' by choosing Buddhism rather than RC, my background in modern European History compelled me to weigh in. I simply felt he was conveniently ignoring RC's manifest failures and engaging in a little gratuitous Asia-bashing by-the-by. But I have most definitely received an education today and now realize the wisdom of Pope's aphorism that 'a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.'
I feel like I may be belaboring the point, but the Japanese in Unit 731 were simultaneously Shintoist and Buudhists, correct? I think I may have erred initially in assuming that one was either a Shintoist or a Buddhist but not both simultaneously. I can tell you know a hell of a lot more about the religious lay of the land there than I do, so I will defer to your assessment.