Statue of John Paul II

[Dave W]

Pope JP II statue looks like Mussolini?

I don't see the resemblance. Now, if the statue were hanging upside down in an Esso station in Milan, they might have a point.

[dadagoboi]

Maybe it has to do with the similarity of their politics.  IMO they were both fascists.

[ack1961]

they both look like Dr. Evil...

[uwe]

It's a stretch. He doesn't have the Duce's square jaw.

[gweimer]

Looks more like a Sontaran from Dr. Who.

[uwe]

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!

[dadagoboi]

Stated simply: In the 70s- 80s JPII was against Revolution Theology when directed toward right wing governments in Central and South America but all for it in regards the USSR.  Or as I like to call him, Pope Polack the First.

From my understanding the southern, Catholic, part of Germany was historically the most anti-Semitic.  The RC hierarchy probably resented the Nazi's infringing their turf.  The Papacy has ALWAYS been about power and survival.

[uwe]

It's not that simple. The synagogue in my home town was left unscathed, my great-grandfather, Catholic, who loved the Kaiser, but despised the Nazis as rabble, hid the Jewish neighbors. My grandfather from my mother's side was a protestant (one more reason why my great-grandfather had issues with him) and wore the SA uniform. A lot of the conspirators against Hitler were entrenched Catholics.

Of course, the Catholic Church is anti-semitic at heart (though not so much in a biologist sense, but in one regarding faith, the old "who nailed Jesus to the cross"- and "can't-we-force-baptize-them-all"-medieval thinking), but from anti-semitism to all-out genocide and Auschwitz is still a (goose)-step or several. The holocaust had - ugly - components other than mere anti-semitism.

Martin Luther was an anti-semite (for all his other, positive traits) and the NSDAP did nauseatingly well in some of the very Eastern parts of Germany which were protestant and felt surrounded by non-German Catholics.

More Jews lived in southern than in northern Germany (hardly a surprise given where they migrated from) and the Reformation wasn't as successful in southern as in northern Germany, so the larger Jewish constituency was automatically in the Catholic parts.

[Big_Stu]

It's not that simple.

It's not that complicated; the sculptor was obviously a fan of British comedy.

[uwe]

[ack1961]

Jerzy Belovski - a strong likeness.

[clankenstein]

they all look like vogons.