Natural Law:
It is also the case that Martin Luther at the time before his excommunication was Father Martin Luther, a priest of the Augustinian Monks/Order, and he was challenging the 1,500 year apostolic Tradition.
Excommunication is incurred 2 ways 1) ferendae sententia, which is after a formal proceding, which is what happened to Luther and 2) latae sententia, which is an automatic excommunication because the act itself is a serious rupture with the life of the Church and thus Christ.
I don’t have a 1917 Code of Canon Law but at that time, there were some 30 offenses and under the 1983 Canon, I think there are 7, 1 of which is procuring an abortion. Another one is Apostasy and heresy, which certainly Hitler would have been guilty of. He clearly viewed Nazism as a religion were the German Race was superior to non-Germans, note he invaded Poland and killed thousands of Catholic Priests there and viewed the Slavic-Poles as subhuman.
He publicly claimed that Jesus was the “bastard son of a Roman” Soldier, thus not Jewish. Again, Heresy and Apostasy,
Thus, under canon Law, Hitler was excommunicated latae sententia. End of discussion.
seriously, did anyone EVER think Hitler was Catholic??????