The Pope, Auschwitz, and Deicide

While visiting Auschwitz, Pope Benedict made the following observation:

“Deep down, those vicious criminals [the Nazis], by wiping out this people [the Jews], wanted to kill the God who called Abraham, who spoke on Sinai and laid down principles to serve as a guide for mankind, principles that are eternally valid. If this people, by its very existence, was a witness to the God who spoke to humanity and took us to himself, then that God finally had to die and power had to belong to man alone—to those men, who thought that by force they had made themselves masters of the world. By destroying Israel, they ultimately wanted to tear up the taproot of the Christian faith and to replace it with a faith of their own invention: faith in the rule of man, the rule of the powerful."

Like many others on reading this, I thought that it was an interesting insight, but...you know, 'how could that be possible?'--after all, the implication here is that not only the Jews, but the Catholics and Lutherans would be exterminated.

Well, maybe that WAS the plan. A commenter at Bettnet's thread on the topic lays out the plan:

I invite you and your readers to consider William Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”, acknowledged by many as the definitive history of the Third Reich. On pages 332-333 of his book (Paperback, Fawcett Crest, 1960), Mr. Shirer tells us of the Nazis’ plan to set up the “National Reich Church”. A 30-point program for this Church was in fact prepared by Nazi-ideologist Alfred Rosenberg, who was, as Mr. Shirer tells us, an outspoken pagan. Among the more chilling items in that program are these, which are mentioned by Mr. Shirer:

1. The National Reich Church of Germany categorically claims the exclusive right and the exclusive power to control all churches within the borders of the Reich ...

5. The National Church is determined to exterminate irrevocably ... the strange and foreign Christian faiths imported into Germany in the ill-omened year 800.

7. The National Church has no scribes, pastors, chaplains or priests, but National Reich orators are to speak in them.

13. The National Church demands immediate cessation of the publishing and dissemination of the Bible in Germany ...

14. The National Church declares that to it, and therefore to the German nation, it has been decided that the Fuehrer’s Mein Kampf is the greatest of all documents. It ... not only contains the greatest but it embodies the purest and truest ethics for the present and future life of our nation.

18. The National Church will clear away from its altars all crucifixes, Bibles and pictures of saints.

19. On the altars there must be nothing but Mein Kampf (to the German nation and therefore to God the most sacred book) and to the left of the altar a sword.

30. On the day of its foundation, the Christian Cross must be removed from all churches, cathedrals and chapels ... and it must be superseded by the only unconquerable symbol, the swastika.

This plan, to wipe out the God of Israel, and replace Him and His word with the State and the scribbling of a demented Austrian, has adherents today, not only in countries still dominated by the Communists, but in the West, including the US. The removal of God from the public square and the replacement with purely secular "ideals" and "morals" is ongoing and pervasive.

Pope Benedict has made it one of his priorities to 're-evangelize' Europe, and by extension, the West as a whole; it is a logical outgrowth of JPII's role in the demolition of the USSR's Communist regime. Benedict has clearly indicated that the West is becoming "God-less," and to him, this is a very significant problem; because the State[s] will step in to fill the void.

Shirer's documentation of the Nazi program is a timely and useful reminder of the reality.