Mussolini's Religion

[Ritterin Sophia]

Okay, basically I'm in an argument with a dumbass who's arguing Hitler was an atheist, this is easily debunked, however, he's also arguing Mussolini was an atheist. I know it's up to him to prove the positive, however, I would like to thoroughly curbstomp him, so I'm looking for information on Mussolini's religion, the only thing I've really found was Wikipedia's entry on him, which stated he was a Roman Catholic, however I know how utterly unreliable wikipedia can be.

[Covenant]

A complex question!

12. The Fascist State does not remain indifferent to the fact of religion in general and to that particular positive religion which is Italian Catholicism. The State has no theology, but it has an ethic. . . . The Fascist State does not create a "God" of its own, as Robespierre once, at the height of the Convention's foolishness, wished to do; nor does it vainly seek, like Bolshevism, to expel religion from the minds of men. Fascism respects the God of the ascetics, of the saints, of the heroes, and also God as seen and prayed to by the simple and primitive heart of the people.

That's from El Ducko's Big Stupid Publication, as far as I can tell, and it's one of his few statements about it. He seems to have no love of organized religion, but violent men who want to rule others rarely seem to appreciate clergy who feel that nobody can rule them. In these cases religion becomes a tool of the state rather than an enemy of it. I'd say that he had a distaste of it but was not an atheist in the literal sense. He may not have believed in any God we are personally aware of, or at least not in an understanding we would recognize.

[Elfdart]

Il Douchebag may have started off as godless socialist, but he later courted and got the support of the Vatican and made a big to-do over how much of a Man of God he was. How religious he actually was is angels-on-pinheads territory anyway. The movement he led, like most other Fascist movements in Europe and Latin America, was an offshoot of right-wing Catholicism.

[K. A. Pital]

Concordat. Regardless of how Mussolini started and who he was, this speaks multitudes about his clerical attitudes.

Mussolini didn't purge the RCC - he reinforced it's positions and made it a state religion. His fellow fascist Franco went even further - he murdered teachers en masse because they were "secular infidels" and made the RCC obligatory for all citizens. Musso, being a clerical douche too, decided to play the "pro-life" card - abortion became a heavily punished crime under his anti-secular regime.

All 40's fasicsts, from Hitler to Mussolini to Franco, were more or less clerical douchebags. Neither was "atheist" and none were "anticlerical".

[Kittie Rose]

Um, why should it even matter?

By debunking him you're only feeding his idea that Bad Person X being an atheist means atheism in general is a hokey concept, since in his head it's "You're wrong because he's not an atheist", as opposed to "You're wrong because of your views on atheism" and it sticks like that.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Thanks everyone, but it appears he's broken down into, 'It's a conspiracy to make Hitler and Mussolini into Atheists!' So I'm probably only going to play with him a short while longer.

[Tahlan]

I've gone in search of an answer for you, and I've now read all the info on two Web sites. One is Mussolini I and the other is Mussolini II. Not one word about his religion or faith. The assumption would be that he was Roman Catholic. But, admittedly, thats a worthless assumption without any proof to back it up. (We need a "hand waving" emoticon. I could use it right here.)

[K. A. Pital]

I've gone in search of an answer for you, and I've now read all the info on two Web sites.

Your google-foo is weak. Search "mussolini+catholic" or "mussolini+concordat" and get the facts on his faith and religion in politics.