You are not alone in pointing out the similarities between Nazi and Catholic absolutisms. Goodness knows whether there is anything in this – though of course JR was exposed to Nazism at a formative age. Of course, there are plenty of absolutisms in life: e.g. treating relativism and personal liberty as absolutes. If all that Nazism and Catholicism have in common is absolutism, then this is not a significant link, since the majority of worldviews and ideologies are absolutist about some matters.

By our religious correspondent N. Gascoine.

On being elected Pope, the much-feared (shouldn’t that be respected? – ed.)
Cardinal Josef Ratpoison made a speech to cheering crowds in the Vatican
yesterday.

“I am zo pleased to be elected your Guide and Leader, and to carry on the
Great Struggle which has been led by many of my predecessors in ze past.
Zis struggle is my struggle, also, and building on our great successes, ve
should be able to complete our conquest of all of Europe. Ve have long
since conquered Poland, thanks to my predecessor, and now, with the
re-creation of ze Rome-Berlin Axis we can recommence ze drive to the East,
spearheded by out loyal followers in Livonia.
Only ze protestant and unbeliving British stand against us in our drive to
bring ze whole of Europe under our command, und since ve already have
Latinamerika, ze vorld is in our grasp.
In order to speed up out conquest ( Sorry, I meant conversion zere!) I am
designating the younger and more vigorous members of OSD and Opus Dei as the
Special Sacramental Brigade ( Sacramenta Staffeln auf Deutsch) who will wear
special black-leather cassocks to distinguish them as ze stormtroopers of ze
faith. The great struggle should not be nearly as difficult as ze last
time, since ve already have sympathisers in ze person of ze British prime
Minister Bliar und seiner Frau, die heiligine Cherie. With zis fith-column,
und ze coming prohibition of criticism of religion in Britain, as proposed
by Herr Bliar, ve can look forward to ze establishment of ze thousand-Year
reign of ze catholic Reich.
As Holy Roman Emporer of ze German Nation, I salute you all.”

Also, proof is not just a “mathematical thing”, but an important concept that needs to be at the heart of a legal system. For example, one could examine your computer records to prove that you had visited this website. Although there are a lot of “mathematical thing”s in computers, one could hardly call such a proof mathematical.

Good points, although:
(1) Why are you reacting as though mediawatch / CV etc were saying something new? They are merely seeking to retain standards that have held for long periods in many countries: standards devised in a less materialistic and individualistic age by people who were not stupid.
(2) Proof is hard to obtain (since proof is a mathematical thing)- yet any number of studies have already been done, and future ones would only duplicate them.

Hi Monitor-
In my experience, ‘bad-because-old’ is the main colloquial meaning of the word ‘primitive’, and ‘bad-because-old-fashioned’ is the main colloquial meaning of ‘reactionary’. Both meanings are incoherent, but those using the words in this way may not have thought the matter through enough to realise that they are incoherent.

Seriously, it is to be hoped there is a LOT of local and national publicity about this religious spite.