Comparison of Mussolini’s Italy/Franco’s Spain with Hitler’s Germany is like comparing a “ Coreleone “ with an SS thug. There’s a qualitative leap. Mussolini, as you know, was much admired in the the USA and in Europe. The Western Powers were unwise enough to enlist Mussolini as an honest-broker. And he was the “protector” of Austria until he decided to enter into a partnership with Hitler, seeing Germany as the strong horse. As of September, 1940, he had bet on a winner. The Axis Powers were on the top of the heap.
It was not a comparison it was a gentle reminder that throwing dictators names to slander your enemies when defending the Pope is unwise.
Catholic Spain has become a place with the lowest number of practicing catholics probably in Europe because the church allied themselves with Franco against the people. No one could get a job unless the priest certified that you were a catholic in good standing. The day Franco died the corrupt church died with him.
No matter how beloved Mussolini was by the US or the Vatican the Italians peopñe hung him upside down from a lampost the end of the war.
The Catholic Church has always sided with the powerful to survive that is the only important article of faith tha matters — all the rest is window dressing for the rubes.