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First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

In this one, the Church isn’t mentioned. The poem had many variations since Niemöller often ran them off extemporaneously and Catholics were on the list in one that I have read.

For any totalitarianism to succeed, government must be society’s center. Man & government replaces God & religion. The Religion of Man has many churches, Soviet Socialism, Fascism, German National Socialism, Chinese Communism, etc. Some may deny their kinship with but they are related, cut from the same cloth.

It has often been observed that the French overthrew a King and wound up with an Emperor, Napoleon. In Napoleon’s France, there was a book with question and answers that sounded like a catechism. He was God in the new French Republic and France has remained militantly secular since.

Of course, Karl Marx despised religion calling it ‘the opiate of the masses.’ In times of trouble people turned to God. Marx wanted them to turn government in the Religion of Man. In communist societies, churches & religion were always among the very first targets.

In much of eastern Europe, the Catholic Church dominated but in Russia and many of Soviet Republics, churches such as the Ukrainian & Russian Orthodox dominated. Being confined to their own countries, they were easier targets for the government to infiltrate. In the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church was neutralized as an opponent of the regime. But the Catholic Church remained, beyond their reach.

It hadn’t been beyond the reach of the Fascists & German National Socialists. The Vatican is completely surrounded by Italy and thus would have been easy pickings for Benito Mussolini or Adolf Hitler. Hitler had wanted to arrest Pius XII for his efforts to save Jews and other offenses.

For many reasons, not the least of which that Italy and Austria were predominantly Catholic and that Germany had a very large Catholic minority, Hitler spared Pius. The Fascists & National Socialists focused more on other undesirables but the Church was among their targets.

For communist governments, the Church was a target that was beyond them in several ways. Geographically, it was elsewhere.

But further, the Church, like other western religions, dealt in a sphere that the communists couldn’t even acknowledge existed! Finally, it represented to the people what the communists wanted to be, their god. It was a howitzer aimed squarely at their chests. They had to destroy it.

Government is to solve people’s problems. Not the people, for they might turn to God for guidance which diverts them from worshipping the temporal god of the Religion of Man.

The Commandments & Scriptures tell us that the God of Abraham is a jealous God and we are to have no gods before him. Man is a false god and the Religion of Man must replace & destroy the Religion of God.

The Catholic Church embodies all the things that threaten the Religion of Man. Being the largest single western denomination, it is the most obvious target for the totalitarians.

This is crucial & must be understood to understand totalitarianism’s need to destroy religion, especially the Catholic Church. Although everyone was subject to the terrors of communism in the USSR & its satellites, Red China, Cuba etc. some of the worst punishments were reserved for priests and the prelates of the Church. Temporally, the Vatican is tiny, and even if it were destroyed, the Church would continue in perpetuity.

Those who adhere to a religion of God, have less faith in government and are more likely to reject the Religion of Man and the reverse applies. It is no accident, that liberals, progressives, socialists and communists are far less likely to attend church than conservatives. In addition, liberals, progressives, socialists and communists are far less likely to contribute to charity than those who worship God. They revert to the tired & lame excuse that ‘they give at work.’ It’s terrifying that many of them actually believe this.

The extent to which these totalitarianisms are religions can not be overstated. Every last one has developed a personality cult. The French Revolution overthrew a king and wound up with an emperor and personality cult in Napoleon. The Russian Revolution overthrew a Tsar and wound up with a dictator, Josif Stalin. The German National Socialists overthrew a Democratic government and wound up with dictator and a personality cult in Adolf Hitler, the Chinese got Mao, Cuba Castro, etc. They were the deities in their Religions of Man.

It carries through further including to this country. The Democratic Party has been socialist since 1932. Franklin D. Roosevelt is accorded god-like status among progressives.

Since then, personality cults have emerged around John Kennedy, Bill Clinton and now Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton has a cadre of worshippers in intensity far beyond any Republican. She is a socialist and a god to them. She has no substantive differences with Bernie Sanders who unabashedly calls himself one.

No administration in our history has been more aggressively socialist than this one of Barack H. Obama. Its signature achievement has been the Affordable Care Act, the ACA.

There were fears the ACA would require them Catholic institutions to subsidize abortion and contraception, both contrary to Church teachings. One by one, Catholic Democrats fell into line. One of the last holdouts was ten term, retiring Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak. There was a news blurb where he said that he’d expressed all his concerns and that he was satisfied they would be honored.

There was also the case of Cardinal Timothy Dolan who gave an interview in a 60 Minutes segment where he said that he’d had a meeting with Pres. Barack Obama who assured him that there would be an exemption for religious beliefs. By that point, it was obvious that there was no intention of allowing any exemption.

(As an aside, either Dolan or Obama lied. There is no other conclusion yet you can not get a progressive to address this. Why? When I directly challenged one progressive with this on-line, he responded by threatening to have me committed. Such is liberal tolerance.)

The case of The Little Sisters of the Poor having to provide birth control for its employees was no accident. A confrontation such as this was planned at the very highest level of this administration. There is no way it could have escaped Barack Obama’s attention & approval. The goal from the start was to humiliate and crush the Catholic Church, to establish the authority of the Religion of Man over the Religion of God.

So there you have it. Socialism as the Religion of Man. I believe it helps understand the malignant intent. Catholicism, along with religion in general, can not be tolerated in socialism. The analogies carry through. Think about it.

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