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To: AnalogReigns
by which someone's unrepented of and unconfessed mortal sins excommunicate them in the eyes of God

Sorry, AR, but that's wrong.

It's specific sins, not any mortal sin, and they aren't excommunicated only in the eyes of God. They are excommunicated in the eyes of the Church, just as much as someone who is excommunicated by a formal decree (called ferendae sententiae).

It's true that the church can't enforce the excommunication if she doesn't know about the sin, but that's the only difference. In Hitler's case that was obviously not an issue.

The whole "Hitler wasn't excommunicated" silliness is honestly a very moot point. Excommunicating Hitler wouldn't have done anything -- he didn't attempt to receive communion at any time after his teens -- and there was never much doubt about what Rome thought of him ... none at all after Mit Brennender Sorge.

279 posted on 03/15/2008 3:45:41 PM PDT by Campion
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To: Campion
Julius Streicher (one of Hitler's top henchmen and publisher of the anti-Semitic Der Sturmer) was asked during the Nuremberg trials if there were any other publications in Germany which treated the Jewish question in an anti-Semitic way., Streicher put it well:

"Dr. Martin Luther would very probably sit in my place in the defendants' dock today, if this book had been taken into consideration by the Prosecution. In the book 'The Jews and Their Lies,' Dr. Martin Luther writes that the Jews are a serpent's brood and one should burn down their synagogues and destroy them..."

Indeed, no historian has yet to put Martin Luther on trial for his incitement of crimes against humanity.

Source: Martin Luther's dirty little book

310 posted on 03/15/2008 4:20:38 PM PDT by Petronski (Nice job, Hillary. Now go home and get your shine box.)
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