Fascism and Quasi-Fascism in the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic clergy give Nazi salute

WHAT IS FASCISM?

Fascism is a complex ideology. There are many definitions of fascism; some people describe it as a type or set of political actions, a political philosophy or a mass movement. Most definitions agree that fascism is authoritarian and promotes nationalism at all costs, but its basic characteristics are a matter of debate.

Fascism is commonly associated with German Nazi and Italian regimes that came to power after World War I, though several other countries have experienced fascist regimes or elements of them. Adolf Hitler in Germany, Benito Mussolini in Italy, Francisco Franco in Spain and Juan Perón in Argentina were well-known fascist leaders of the 20th century.

…Robert Paxton, a professor emeritus of social science at Columbia University in New York who is widely considered the father of fascism studies, defined fascism as “a form of political practice distinctive to the 20th century that arouses popular enthusiasm by sophisticated propaganda techniques for an anti-liberal, anti-socialist, violently exclusionary, expansionist nationalist agenda.”

…Though fascism can be difficult to define, all fascist movements share some core beliefs and actions.

Fascism’s core elements

Fascism requires some basic allegiances, such as to the nation, to national grandeur, and to a master race or group. The core principle — what Paxton defined as fascism’s only definition of morality — is to make the nation stronger, more powerful, larger and more successful. Since fascists see national strength as the only thing that makes a nation “good,” fascists will use any means necessary to achieve that goal.

As a result, fascists aim to use the country’s assets to increase the country’s strength. This leads to a nationalization of assets, Montague said, and in this, fascism resembles Marxism.

…“If Marxism was meant to become a magnitude of countries sharing assets in an economic idea, fascists tried to do the same thing within a country,” he said.

Guided by the principle of extreme nationalism, fascist regimes tend to perform similar actions, though the particulars differ, author George Orwell wrote in his essay “What Is Fascism?” According to Paxton, these regimes excel at propaganda and make use of grand gestures, such as parades and leaders’ dramatic entrances. Fascists scapegoat and demonize other groups, though those groups differ by country and time. That is why the German Nazi regime demonized Jews and others, while Mussolini’s Italian regime demonized Bolsheviks.

…Paxton, author of several books, including “The Anatomy of Fascism” (Vintage, 2005), said fascism is based more on feelings than philosophical ideas. In his 1988 essay “The Five Stages of Fascism,” published in 1998 in the Journal of Modern History, he defined seven feelings that act as “mobilizing passions” for fascist regimes. They are:

- The primacy of the group. Supporting the group feels more important than maintaining either individual or universal rights.

- Believing that one’s group is a victim. This justifies any behavior against the group’s enemies.

- The belief that individualism and liberalism enable dangerous decadence and have a negative effect on the group.

- A strong sense of community or brotherhood. This brotherhood’s “unity and purity are forged by common conviction, if possible, or by exclusionary violence if necessary.”

- Individual self-esteem is tied up in the grandeur of the group. Paxton called this an “enhanced sense of identity and belonging.”

- Extreme support of a “natural” leader, who is always male. This results in one man taking on the role of national savior.

- The beauty of violence and of will, when they are devoted to the group’s success in a Darwinian struggle,” Paxton wrote. The idea of a naturally superior group or, especially in Hitler’s case, biological racism, fits into a fascist interpretation of Darwinism.

Once in power, “fascist dictatorships suppressed individual liberties, imprisoned opponents, forbade strikes, authorized unlimited police power in the name of national unity and revival, and committed military aggression,” Paxton wrote.

Economics of fascism

The economics of fascism are complicated, Montague said. Fascist governments’ purported goal was autarky, or national self-sufficiency. In the 1920s and 1930s, fascist leaders pitched this as an effective middle ground between bourgeois, profit-oriented capitalism and revolutionary Marxism that would dismantle many social institutions and persecute the bourgeoisie.

…One element of fascism is collaboration with capitalists and the conservative elite. Fascists, even when they start out with radical ideas, always collaborate to move in the direction of protecting private property, Paxton told Live Science. This is, however, an awkward alliance, he said.

“Conservatives are basically people of order who want to use things like the church and property to maintain an existing social order, whereas fascists are revolutionists who will break up social institutions if they think it will bring national power or grandeur or expansion,” he said.

…Why is fascism so hard to define?

…In 1944, while much of the world was still influenced by fascist regimes, Orwell said that fascism is extremely difficult to define. In his “What Is Fascism?” essay, he said that much of the trouble was that fascist regimes differ wildly in many ways. “It is not easy, for instance, to fit Germany and Japan into the same framework, and it is even harder with some of the small states which are describable as fascist,” Orwell wrote.

Fascism always takes on the individual characteristics of the country it is in, leading to very different regimes. For instance, Paxton wrote in “The Five Stages of Fascism” that “religion … would play a much greater role in authentic fascism in the United States” than it would in the more secular Europe. National variants of fascism differ more broadly than national variants of, for instance, communism or capitalism, Paxton said.

Further complicating matters, nonfascist governments have often mimicked elements of fascist regimes to give the appearance of force and national vitality, Paxton said. For example, mass mobilizations of citizens in colored shirts do not automatically equate to a fascist political practice, he said.

…Unlike most other political, social or ethical philosophies — such as communism, capitalism, conservatism, liberalism or socialism — fascism does not have a set philosophy. As Paxton wrote, “There was no ‘Fascist Manifesto,’ no founding fascist thinker.”

…For a fascist party to become powerful, the combination of a strong national identity and disenchantment with government still needs a catalyst to make regular people side with vocal fascists, Montague said. In Germany, and to an extent Italy, this catalyst was the Great Depression, he said.

…Paxton stressed this point: “The rise of fascism is not really comprehensible without paying attention to the rise of communism,” he said. “In the 20th century, they were the two movements that proposed to set democracy aside and replace it with something else in order to make the country stronger.”

Link: https://www.livescience.com/57622-fascism.html

Above is an excellent discussion of fascism. It lays the groundwork for understanding the rise and persistence of fascist or quasi-fascist movements within the Roman Catholic Church.

Fascism and Quasi-Fascism in the Roman Catholic Church

In its most fundamental aspect, fascism is political reaction. Religious institutions are social organizations, so they necessarily have a political character and are therefore not exempt from political reaction. The Counter-Reformation may be understood as political reaction. However, what distinguishes it from 20th-century religious movements in the Roman Catholic Church is that the latter take place in reaction against political ideologies—principally liberalism and Communism—and their influence on the established religion. Fascist and quasi-fascist movements within the Roman Catholic Church are characteristically anti-liberal and anti-Communist. They advocate a Third Way that may be properly understood as fascist or quasi-fascist.

What else besides are the defining features of Catholic fascist and quasi-fascist movements? (We say “quasi-fascism” if the movement shares some but not all the characteristic attributes of fascism.)

Besides reaction against liberalism and communism, that is, the ideological left, Catholic fascism and quasi-fascism considerably emphasize building and maintaining a strong triumphalist group identity originating from an authoritarian male leader for the core purpose of accomplishing successful reaction. Successful reaction, in turn, is theologically associated with restoring and maintaining the purity of the religion and the salvation corresponding to this ongoing endeavor. This dynamic is conceived as “ascetical struggle,” in part “political struggle” even though as a rule it is not explicitly or consciously acknowledged by the devotees as such.

Because of the stress on elevating triumphalist group identity under an authoritarian leader, motifs of struggle, “will,” militarism, and violence make a good fit for the group ideology. It is “ideology” because it is a system of ideas that translates into political orientation and action. In Roman Catholicism outright violence is taboo, so the violence takes other forms and is channeled in other ways. The violence is often exercised in words and directed against various persons or groups, who are demonized. Sometimes the demons themselves are identified as enemies. Another way in which the violence may be perpetrated is indirect. The fascist or quasi-fascist group actively seeks positions of power in the Roman Catholic Church and then from those positions takes actions against their perceived enemies, such as through doctrinal condemnations or by undermining and preventing important appointments. Character assassination is a very common tactic. The whole enterprise is conceived as a struggle for the salvation of souls. It is a curious synthesis of traditional religion and fascist motifs. It could be described as syncretism.

As the fascist or quasi-fascist group gains power within the Roman Catholic Church, authoritarian repression, which characterizes the organization internally, is also exercised ad extra. Threats of eternal damnation, public humiliation as a means of control, blackmailing, censorship, hurling anathemas, and other ways of maintaining authoritarian structure internally to advance the group agenda find their way into the relations of the organization ad extra. Naturally, progressive forces within Catholicism push back, limiting the influence and power of the rightist reaction.

Because the motive of the group arises in a religious context and situates in a religious universe, the religious ideology of the group constitutes an important component that defines the triumphalist group identity and advances the group agenda of reaction. The religious ideology in fact shows points of convergence with historical fascism. The group might conceive of itself as a sort of spiritual elite or “shock troops,” or as the Scriptural remnant of the Roman Catholic faithful, for example. The entire ideology is mythic, particularly with respect to the founder-leader. Stories are told of how angels appeared at his baptism and the like. The bond among the members of the group also has a mythic aspect. Their incorporation into the group creates a type of “Blut and Boden” identity, in a manner of speaking, and they become Knights Templar in the present day. The entire construction at first sounds fantastical in the humdrum world of the ordinary parish-based Roman Catholic, far-fetched until he or she actually has the opportunity to peruse the ideological documents of the group.

Stemming from the Roman Catholic right wing, internal fascist or quasi-fascist religious groups settle themselves around the values and attitudes of social conservatism. Consequently, they align with the economic elite. They in fact seek to build alliances with the economic elite to advance the fascist or quasi-fascist religious agenda. Just as in historical fascism, the political alliance of fascist or quasi-fascist religious groups with the economic elite is capitalist and corporatist. It is a type of corporatism.

The foregoing discussion allows us to put together a checklist of attributes of fascist and quasi-fascist groups in Roman Catholicism:

- Anti-liberalism

- Anti-Communism

- Religious reaction

- Authoritarianism

- Group superiority complex

- Metaphysical community

- Mythic ideology

- Triumphalism

- Aggression

- Militarism

- Repression

- Recapitulation of fascist motifs, e.g. struggle, “will,” purity, cleansing, etc.

- Corporatism

The main point of the exposition is that there are indeed parallels and convergences between historical fascism and right-wing religious movements in the Roman Catholic Church. It is not an exaggerated or implausible comparison. Similarities appear to originate in human nature, from some genetically based constellation of attitudes and values that regularly occurs in political and religious society.

It goes without saying that fascism is not harmless. It actively seeks power, misuses and abuses it. It is chauvinistic, aggressive, delusional, repressive, and greedy. It imposes censorship and wields propaganda. It denigrates and abuses human rights. It damages people.