If you’re writing about the history of the ’30s and the rise of totalitarianism, you can take out the word ‘fascist’ if you want – Italy, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Austria – and just put in ‘extreme right Catholic Party’. Christopher Hitchens’ Last Interview, Youtube 1.04.16, recorded 2011
Anti-Semitism was preached as an official doctrine of the church until 1964. Christopher Hitchens, with Stephen Fry v the Catholic Church 2009
I say it in the presence of His Grace and I say it to his face: the preachings of his Church are responsible for the death and suffering and misery of millions of his brother and sister Africans. ibid.
A clutch of hysterical sinister virgins who have already betrayed their charge in the children of their own church. For shame! ibid.
cf.
That message is one of hope. That message is one of salvation. Anne Widdecombe, with John Onaiyekan v Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens, 2009
A world without the Catholic Church would be poorer, would be more hopeless, and would be a worse place in which to live. ibid.
cf.
The idea that the Catholic Church exists to disseminate the word of the Lord is nonsense. Stephen Fry, with Christopher Hitchens v Catholic Church 2009
This Pope ... He [the Pope] spreads the lie that condoms actually increase the incidence of AIDS. ibid.
They for example thought that slavery was perfectly fine. Absolutely OK. And then they didn’t. And what is the point of the Catholic Church if it says, We couldn’t know better because nobody else did. Then what are you for! ibid.
The Catholic Church has no problem with evolution. They do have a problem with the separation of humanity from all other species. And so the official view of the Catholic Church now is that we did indeed evolve, we are indeed cousins of apes and monkeys etc. but that at some point in our evolution God injected the soul, and did not inject the soul into any other species. Professor Richard Dawkins, BBC Radio Ulster
What impresses me about Catholic mythology is partly its tasteless kitsch but mostly the airy nonchalance with which these people make up the details as they go along. It is just shamelessly invented. Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
Pope John Paul II created more saints than all his predecessors of the of the past centuries put together. And he had a special affinity with the virgin Mary. His polytheistic hankerings were dramatically demonstrated in 1981 when he suffered an assassination attempt in Rome, and attributed his survival to intervention to Our Lady of Fatima. A maternal hand guided the bullet. One cannot but wonder why she didn’t guide it to miss him altogether. ibid.
In medieval times, the Church used to sell ‘Indulgences’ for money. This amounted to paying for some numbers of days’ remission from purgatory, and the Church literally (and with breathtaking presumption) issued signed certificates specifying the number of days off that had been purchased. The Roman Catholic Church is an institution for whose gains the phrase ‘ill-gotten’ might have been specially invented. And of all its money-making rip-offs, the selling of indulgences must surely rank among the greatest con tricks in history, the medieval equivalent of the Nigerian Internet scam but far more successful. ibid.
Can The Catholic Church Save Itself? Time magazine cover
That the Church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any other institution that has ever existed among mankind will be questioned by no Protestant who has a complete knowledge of history. It is impossible to form a complete conception of the multitude of her victims and it is certain that no powers of imagination can adequately realise their suffering. W E H Lecky, History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe 2:32
When they relocated in Rome to form the Roman Empire and Church, the Roman Church, what we call Christianity was merely the Church of Babylon relocated. David Icke, lecture Brixton Academy
Among the best traitors Ireland has ever had, Mother Church ranks at the very top, a massive obstacle in the path to equality and freedom. She has been a force for conservatism... to ward off threats to her own security and influence. Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey
The papacy is not other than the ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof. Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679, Leviathan
In 1550 Pope Julius III declared his claim to universal temporal power evidenced by a new coin he issued, it’s motto having read: The nation and kingdom that will not serve me shall perish. W C Brownlee, Popery: An Enemy to Civil and Religious Liberty, and Dangerous to Our Republic p159
The Pope proclaimed that Mussolini was sent from divine providence. Mussolini: The Rise of Italian Fascism, Channel 5 2007
The Mafia and the mob runs this country. And the Catholic Church is behind the mob. Period. Jordan Maxwell, lecture The Illuminati
The Sons of Malta ... The CIA is the Catholic Church ... The Vatican owns the Watergate ... The Vatican set up its own people. Jordan Maxwell, Government Conspiracies, 2002
I believe the Catholic Church itself is a Masonic order of sorts in that it is based on some ancient cults that have come out of the ancient world. The symbolism is very easily traced back to Syria, Persia, Egypt and especially the Sumerian and Babylonian [societies]. Jordan Maxwell, recorded interview
You cannot be a satanic priest unless first of all you are a Catholic priest. Bill Schnoebelen, lecture The Prophecy Club, ‘Exposing the Illuminati from Within’
The cross is not broken but turned upside down. It indicates the rejection of Jesus Christ and contempt for the gospel of salvation. Professor J S Malan
There were accommodations made prior to World War II between the Fascists and the Church – basically, we’ll leave you alone if you’ll leave us alone. Jim Marrs, interview Illuminating Angels & Demons
I’ve been asked in the struggle between the Illuminati and the Church who is winning. And it’s hard to say because this is a sub rosa conflict ... The influence of the Church is waning, and there is growing chaos in the political field and growing control in the corporate field, so I would have to say the Illuminati seems to be ahead at this point ibid.
It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics and chemistry. H L Mencken, notebooks, 1956
It is estimated by careful and credible historians that more than fifty Millions of the human family have been slaughtered for the crime of heresy by popish persecutors. John Dowling, The History of Romanism p541
Thomas Aquinas wrote no treatise on economics, but his thinking, based on that of Aristotle, is foundational for understanding the economic thought of the Roman Catholic Church. Henry William Spiegel, The Growth of Economic Thought p29
The Catholic Church has never really come to terms with women. What I object to is being treated either as Madonnas or Mary Magdalenes. Shirley Williams, Observer 22nd March 1981
To reinforce the power of the relics the Church issued two proclamations detailing God’s position on war: they were called the Peace of God and the Truth of God. The Dark Ages
Catholics have more extreme sex lives because they’re taught that pleasure is bad for you. Who thinks it’s normal to kneel down to a naked man who’s nailed to a cross? It’s like a bad leather bar. John Waters
Given the number of sins we’ve committed in the course of the twentieth century reference to them must necessary be rather summary. Bishop Piero Marini, Vatican spokesman, 2000
If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses. Lenny Bruce
Protestant women may take the pill. Roman Catholic women must keep taking the Tablet. Irene Thomas, Guardian 28th December 1990
The organisation of the Hierarchy is a complete military despotism of which the Pope is the ostensible head, but of which the Black Pope is the real head ... He is the power behind the throne. Thomas M Harris, author Rome’s Responsibility for the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
According to Canon Law the control of all property of the Roman Church-state belongs to the Pope, the supreme Emperor. Thomas J Reese, Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organisation of the Catholic Church
We hold upon this Earth the place of God almighty. Pope Leo XIII, cited Benziger Brothers, The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII
For the Roman pope, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire church, has full, supreme and universal power over the whole church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered. Catechism of Catholic Church 1994 p254 #882