I hear what you’re saying, but the point of my article is not to paint all Catholics as literal fascists. I just finished looking deeply into the Lateran Treaty the Vatican signed with the Mussolini government, and the purpose of it was to protect Church independence from the Fascists, not to get in bed with them. How well that worked out is a matter of debate, of course.

I do feel I should point out that if the 22% figure is correct, all Germans of the WWII era had official religious affiliations that tended to correlate highly with region. For example, almost all Germans born in Bavaria would have been recorded as official Catholics whether they attended church, felt any loyalty or devotion, or not. So to observe that 22% of the SS were officially Catholic isn’t really saying much. That probably implies nearly 78% were Lutheran.

Don’t get me wrong. I despise the official Church for forcing itself on Indigenous people in cooperation with the Canadian and US governments (among others). I despise the Church for its hateful teachings and practices about LGBTQ people. I personally detest every nun, monk, priest, and bishop who believes or affirms the Church’s teachings about LGBTQ people. That means I detest practically every member of the clergy and every member of a religious order.

But I know that most Catholic lay people in the US and Canada unreservedly oppose the Church’s anti-LGBTQ teachings and look on the Church’s treatment of Indigenous people with horror.

I don’t want to paint those people with too broad a brush.