Hitchens very often cites the Catholic historian Paul Johnson’s, A History of Christianity, as saying that 25% of the SS were confessing Catholics, but not a single one of them was excommunicated for taking part in the Final Solution.
Catholic excommunication is usually reserved for those who commit heresy, apostasy, and schism. It’s not a punishment—it’s a recognition that the person has done something that severs them from the communion of the Church, like publicly declaring that one of the members of the Trinity was subordinate to another, or that they are three aspects of the same being. Murder is the sort of thing resolvable by the sacrament of Confession.
Which fits with the point being made by Alexandros about tribalism. The Church’s morality is based more off on adhering to the tribal identity than with actual moral actions. It is a worse offense to fail to adhere to tribal identity than to murder.
I had heard the SS mostly declared themselves “Gottglaubige”* rather than adhering to any specific denomination.
*Said by some to be a euphemism for atheist.
Hitchens very often cites the Catholic historian Paul Johnson’s, A History of Christianity, as saying that 25% of the SS were confessing Catholics, but not a single one of them was excommunicated for taking part in the Final Solution.
Catholic excommunication is usually reserved for those who commit heresy, apostasy, and schism. It’s not a punishment—it’s a recognition that the person has done something that severs them from the communion of the Church, like publicly declaring that one of the members of the Trinity was subordinate to another, or that they are three aspects of the same being. Murder is the sort of thing resolvable by the sacrament of Confession.
Which fits with the point being made by Alexandros about tribalism. The Church’s morality is based more off on adhering to the tribal identity than with actual moral actions. It is a worse offense to fail to adhere to tribal identity than to murder.