A strong WWII pope

Ok...a SMART strong pope.

How different would things have been if the Nazi's had faced fanatical catholic based oppsitoin in France, Poland and southern Europe.
 
Unfortunately, while I realise its fun to imagine the Pope has but to wave his hand and Catholics everywhere will rise en masse equipped with pitchforks and torches but I am not totally convinced it is terribly accurate.

The pope gets arrested so he can make no more public statements and thats the end of it.
 
Pope has to flee (maybe with italian help) or be captured. Nazis create some sort of Arian Catholic Church (ala Chinese Catholic Church) and send the clergy loyal to the Pope to concentration camps. Probably Spain and Portugal enter war in the side of the Allies...
 
Let's all remember that the Pope orginally supported Hitler. That was before World War II. Then a new pope came and wanted nothing to do with the Fuhrer. Then the Catholic Church officially denounced him. Hitler really didn't care. Nothing happened.

So if we get a younger pope in there who survives into World War II, is a fanatical Christian (like Hitler) but is the opposite side of the religious spectrum we can have some fireworks. Since I have never really studied the Catholic Church, I can't throw out examples.

However, if Hitler asks Mussolini to "kindly blow off his head", he might (depending on how strong his faith is) or he might not. You may even see an Italy vs. Germany World War II.
 
Let's all remember that the Pope orginally supported Hitler.

You mean like Chamberlain, Daladier, Stalin and even Churchill? He was appointed representative in Germany and negociated a Concordate that was active until the last decades of the century, but appart from that. "Mit brennenden Sorge" was mostly his work.
 
Let's all remember that the Pope orginally supported Hitler. That was before World War II. Then a new pope came and wanted nothing to do with the Fuhrer. Then the Catholic Church officially denounced him. Hitler really didn't care. Nothing happened.

So if we get a younger pope in there who survives into World War II, is a fanatical Christian (like Hitler) but is the opposite side of the religious spectrum we can have some fireworks. Since I have never really studied the Catholic Church, I can't throw out examples.

However, if Hitler asks Mussolini to "kindly blow off his head", he might (depending on how strong his faith is) or he might not. You may even see an Italy vs. Germany World War II.

What theological spectrum? Hitler's "Christian fanaticism" was fanaticism for a twisted, idoitrious Christianity that viewed the organized Church as an organ of the Nazi state for the purpose of advancing the Nazi agenda. His was a neo-pagan, reich centered Christianity, not a Christianity centered on Christ and Christ's mission. I might suggest reading articles on the Christian (mostly Protestant) resistance to Hitler, the Confessing Church, and theologians such as Martin Niemoller, Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
 
Unfortunately, while I realise its fun to imagine the Pope has but to wave his hand and Catholics everywhere will rise en masse equipped with pitchforks and torches but I am not totally convinced it is terribly accurate.

The pope gets arrested so he can make no more public statements and thats the end of it.
Oh I know it wouldn't be a unifeid mass uprising, but if a popular pope exhorted catholics to resist as much as they thought they could, I could see the nazis having a lot more trouble.
 
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