Not singling out one comment particularly, but above someone said:

Hitler's government established "state churches" by co-opting the leadership of various German churches, definitely including Protestant denominations ...

In fact, the Weimar Constitution that was in effect when Hitler and his party took office sanctioned a "State Religion" and it was Catholic before Hitler arrived on the scene. Some protestant churches were "tolerated," but had no widespread (public) acceptance and little political influence.

The FIRST INERNATIONAL TREATY that the new Nazi government was able to get signed was with THE VATICAN.

According to some, the primary reason for this treaty was that about the only organized objections against the new government were being voiced by a few liberal Catholic priests and congregations.

With the treaty recognizing the (conservative) Vatican version of catholicism, and making it the only form of Catholic worship allowed in the "official state religion," the resistance was effectively - and by some accounts brutally - crushed. Giving the Vatican full authority over the German church allowed the "church" to purge any priests not following the "official religion" which - almost incidentally from the standpoint of the church - eliminated organized opposition to the new government's "domestic policies."

In other words, Hitler "played them like a bull fiddle" and the Vatican was willingly (or stupidly?) complicit.

(One of the problems with extreme conservatism is that it's so easy, once one knows their mantras.)

Relations between the Nazi regime and Rome were sufficiently cordial that the Vatican is the only foreign power to send an official representative to Hitler's annual birthday party/celebration for the next six years according to documents and photos at several sites.

Given the emotions and "self-serving" histories extant, it's nearly impossible to be absolutely sure than any one - or few - sources are more accurate, or offer "deeper meaning," than any of the others, but the documentation on the above appears credible - to me. In another hundred years maybe I'll have a better understanding of it all.

Hitler was no more a "catholic" than [[CENSORED] is a "born again" christian.

John