Maybe it has to do with the similarity of their politics. IMO they were both fascists.
Interesting way of putting it!
At least in Catholic European countries (Spain, Italy, Croatia) as well as in South America you cannot deny that Catholicism and fascism often formed an unholy alliance in the last century. In Poland, the Catholic Church sided between the wars with an authoritarian military regime, same in Austria ("Austro-Fascism" which, however, scorned Nazism and vice versa).
Not so much in Germany though, where the Nazi brand of fascism never quite managed a strong foothold in the Catholic parts of society. I come from a Catholic small town (Dieburg), which even in the last free election of the Weimar Republic had the then-Catholic party - the "Zentrum" as it was called - win the vote head and shoulders above the NSDAP which did a lot better in surrounding towns of less Catholic heritage. The saying went that "Dieburg was too black (the color associated with the Zentrum) to ever even turn brown (the color associated with the Nazis)". The Nazi's were too overtly anti-religious and their heathenish Nordic mythology crap plus their passion for eugenics rubbed the Catholic Church in the wrong way. It acquiesced into the powers that be, but wasn't a gloating follower, whereas in Spain Franco was viewed as a savior of the Catholic Church. And the Nazis made no bones about wanting to "finish off" the Catholic Church "after the war", it was one his pet projects here:
Needless to say, he came from a very Catholic background, but then "Saul to Paul" (or the other way around!) ruptures were nothing new in Little Joe's biography, he initially even toyed with the idea of turning communist too and through all the frenzied anti-bolshevism of the Nazis always held a grudging, cynical respect for the other Joe in Moscow.
With his looks, Goebbels would have made a great, sinister Cardinal!
