"The Nazi concentration camp – noted Pope Benedict - as every death camp, can be considered an extreme symbol of evil, of the hell that comes to earth when man forgets God, and when He is replaced, usurping from Him the right to decide what is good and what is evil, to give life or to take life. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is not confined to the death camp. It is rather the culmination of an extensive and widespread reality of often nebulous boundaries. "


This reality is precisely the antithesis that became clear at the end of the second millennium, "the opposition between atheistic humanism and Christian humanism, between holiness and nihilism”.

"On the one hand - continued the pope - there are philosophies and ideologies, but also on an increasing scale ways of thinking and acting, which extol the freedom of man as the only principle, as an alternative to God, and thus transform man into a god, whose system behaviour is of an arbitrary nature. On the other hand, we note th

So, why does the wealth of the Vatican need the protection of a secular state?

The Catholic Church has always been in love with power

Ironic........Pope during ww2 turned a blind eye to the horrors of nazi germany and holocaust.

I swear I remember reading from multiple source including his own autobiography that the current pope was in Hitlers youth brigade and luftwaffe (Air Force) as an assistant something or other.

Info...that is true