View source for Clerical fascism

{{Short description|Ideology combining fascism and clericalism}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=November 2017}}
{{Fascism sidebar}}

'''Clerical fascism''' (also '''clero-fascism''' or '''clerico-fascism''') is an ideology that combines the political and economic doctrines of [[fascism]] with [[clericalism]]. The term has been used to describe organizations and movements that combine religious elements with fascism, receive support from religious organizations which espouse sympathy for fascism, or [[list of fascist regimes |fascist regimes]] in which clergy play a leading role.

A core distinction separating clerical fascism from other forms of right-wing Catholic politics is that it requires the fascist polity to be subordinated to the moral and social doctrines of the [[Catholic Church]], explicitly affirming the Church's primacy over the state's ideological goals. This differentiates it from movements where Catholic support is merely tactical or secondary.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Linz |first=Juan J. |title=Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes |date=2000 |publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers |isbn=978-1-62637-269-6 |location=Boulder, CO}}</ref>

When coined in 1920s Italy, the term referred to the political ideology of the [[Roman Catholic]] [[Italian People's Party (1919–1926)|Italian People's Party]] which supported [[Benito Mussolini]] and his fascist regime. The term was also used for Catholics in [[Northern Italy]] who advocated a synthesis of Roman Catholicism and fascism.
== History ==
The term ''clerical fascism'' (clero-fascism or clerico-fascism) emerged in the early 1920s in the [[Kingdom of Italy]], referring to the faction of the Roman Catholic [[Italian People's Party (1919–1926)|Partito Popolare Italiano]] (PPI) which supported [[Benito Mussolini]] and his regime. It was supposedly coined by [[Luigi Sturzo|Don Luigi Sturzo]], a priest and [[Christian democracy|Christian democrat]] leader who opposed Mussolini and went into exile in 1924,{{sfn|Eatwell|2003}} although the term had also been used before Mussolini's [[March on Rome]] in 1922 to refer to Catholics in [[Northern Italy]] who advocated a synthesis of [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholicism]] and fascism.<ref>{{cite book |first=Walter |last=Laqueur |url=http://www.laqueur.net/index2.php?r=2&rr=4&id=49 |title=The Origins of Fascism: Islamic Fascism, Islamophobia, Antisemitism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080114011314/http://www.laqueur.net/index2.php?r=2&rr=4&id=49 |archive-date=2008-01-14 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2006}}</ref>

Sturzo made a distinction between the "filofascists", who left the Catholic PPI in 1921 and 1922, and the "clerical fascists" who stayed in the party after the [[March on Rome]], advocating collaboration with the fascist government.<ref>{{cite thesis |first=Carlo |last=Santulli |title=Filofascisti e Partito Popolare (1923–1926) |language=it |trans-title=Philo-fascists and the People's Party (1923–1926) |publisher=Università di Roma – La Sapienza |date=2001 |page=5}}</ref> Eventually, the latter group converged with Mussolini, abandoning the PPI in 1923 and creating the Centro Nazionale Italiano. The PPI was disbanded by the fascist regime in 1926.<ref>Carlo Santulli, Id.</ref>

The term has since been used by scholars seeking to contrast authoritarian-[[conservatism|conservative]] clerical fascism with more radical variants.<ref>{{cite book |first=H. R. |last=Trevor-Roper |chapter=The Phenomenon of Fascism |editor-first=S. |editor-last=Woolf |title=Fascism in Europe |location=London |publisher=Methuen |date=1981 |page=26}}, Cited in {{harvp|Eatwell|2003}}</ref> Christian fascists focus on internal religious politics, such as passing laws and regulations that reflect their view of [[Christianity]]. Radicalized forms of Christian fascism or ''clerical fascism'' (clero-fascism or clerico-fascism) were emerging on the far-right of the political spectrum in some European countries during the [[interwar period]] in the first half of the 20th century.{{sfn|Feldman|Turda|Georgescu|2008}}

=== Fascist Italy ===
{{See also|Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Roman Question|Freedom of religion in Italy#History}}
[[File:Firma dei Patti Lateranensi.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Mussolini]] (far right) signing the [[Lateran Treaty]] ([[Vatican City]], 11 February 1929)]]

In 1870, the newly formed [[Kingdom of Italy]] annexed the remaining [[Papal States]], depriving the [[Pope]] of his [[Temporal power (papal)|temporal power]]. However, in the 1929 [[Lateran Treaty]], [[Mussolini]] recognized the Pope as Sovereign of [[Vatican City|Vatican City State]], and Roman Catholicism became the [[state religion]] of [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)#Roman Catholic Church|Fascist Italy]].<ref name="Feinstein">{{blockquote|In the period following the signing of the 1929 Lateran Pact, which declared Catholicism as Italy's state religion in the context of a comprehensive regulation of Vatican and Italian government relations, Catholic cultural support for Mussolini is consolidated.|author=Wiley Feinstein|source=''The Civilization of the Holocaust in Italy: Poets, Artists, Saints, Anti-semites'' (2003), p. 19, London, England: [[Fairleigh Dickinson University Press]], {{ISBN|0-8386-3988-7}}.}}</ref><ref name="Kertzer">{{cite book |last=Kertzer |first=David I. |date=2014 |title=The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe |location=[[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Random House]] |pages=196–198 |isbn=978-0-8129-9346-2 |author-link=David I. Kertzer|title-link=The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe}}</ref>

In March 1929, a nationwide plebiscite was held to publicly endorse the Lateran Treaty. Opponents were intimidated by the fascist regime: the organisation [[Azione Cattolica|Catholic Action]] (''Azione Cattolica'') and Mussolini claimed that "no" votes were of those "few ill-advised [[Anti-clericalism|anti-clericals]] who refuse to accept the Lateran Pacts".{{sfn|Pollard|2014|p=49}} Nearly nine million Italians voted, or 90 per cent of the registered electorate, with only 136,000 voting "no".{{sfn|Pollard|2014|p=61}}

Almost immediately after the signing of the Treaty, relations between Mussolini and the Church soured again. Mussolini "referred to [[Catholicism]] as, in origin, a minor sect that had spread beyond [[Historical Palestine]] only because grafted onto the organization of the [[Roman Empire|Roman empire]]."<ref name="dmsmith_162-163">D. M. Smith, 1982, pp.&nbsp;162–163.</ref> After the concordat, "he confiscated more issues of Catholic newspapers in the next three months than in the previous seven years."<ref name="dmsmith_162-163"/> Mussolini reportedly came close to being [[Excommunication (Catholic Church)|excommunicated]] from the Church around this time.<ref name="dmsmith_162-163"/>

In 1938, the [[Italian Racial Laws]] and ''[[Manifesto of Race]]'' were promulgated by the fascist regime to [[the Holocaust in Italy|persecute Italian Jews]]<ref name="Memorial Museum">{{cite web |url=https://www.ushmm.org/learn/mapping-initiatives/geographies-of-the-holocaust/the-holocaust-in-italy |title=The Holocaust in Italy |last1=Giordano |first1=Alberto |last2=Holian |first2=Anna |date=2018 |website=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |access-date=15 August 2018 |quote=In 1938, the Italian Fascist regime under Benito Mussolini enacted a series of racial laws that placed multiple restrictions on the country’s Jewish population. At the time the laws were enacted, it is estimated that about 46,000 Jews lived in Italy, of whom about 9,000 were foreign born and thus subject to further restrictions such as residence requirements. [...] Estimates suggest that between September 1943 and March 1945, about 10,000 Jews were deported. The vast majority perished, principally at [[Auschwitz]].}}</ref> as well as [[Protestantism in Italy|Protestant Christians]],<ref name="Kertzer" />{{sfn|Pollard|2014|pp=109–111}}<ref name="Zanini">{{cite journal |last1=Zanini |first1=Paolo |date=2015 |title=Twenty years of persecution of Pentecostalism in Italy: 1935–1955 |journal=[[Journal of Modern Italian Studies]] |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |volume=20 |issue=5 |pages=686–707 |doi=10.1080/1354571X.2015.1096522|hdl=2434/365385 |s2cid=146180634 |hdl-access=free}}; {{cite journal |last1=Zanini |first1=Paolo |date=2017 |title=Il culmine della collaborazione antiprotestante tra Stato fascista e Chiesa cattolica: genesi e applicazione della circolare Buffarini Guidi |journal=Società e Storia |publisher=[[FrancoAngeli]] |volume=155 |issue=155 |pages=139–165 |language=it |doi=10.3280/SS2017-155006}}</ref><ref name="AssembliesofGod">{{Cite web |url=http://www.assembleedidio.org/RP-Speciale/ |title=Risveglio Pentecostale |publisher=[[Assemblies of God in Italy]] |access-date=15 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170501084721/http://www.assembleedidio.org/RP-Speciale/ |archive-date=1 May 2017 |language=It |url-status=dead}}</ref> especially [[Evangelicals]] and [[Pentecostals]].{{sfn|Pollard|2014|pp=109–111}}<ref name="Zanini"/><ref name="AssembliesofGod"/> Thousands of Italian Jews and a small number of Protestants died in the [[Nazi concentration camps]].<ref name="Memorial Museum"/><ref name="AssembliesofGod"/>

Despite Mussolini's close alliance with Hitler's Germany, Italy did not fully adopt Nazism's genocidal ideology towards the Jews. The Nazis were frustrated by the Italian authorities' refusal to co-operate in roundups of Jews, and no Jews were deported prior to the formation of the [[Italian Social Republic]] following the [[Armistice of Cassibile]].{{sfnp|Gilbert|2004|pp=307–308}} In the Italian-occupied [[Independent State of Croatia]], German envoy [[Siegfried Kasche]] advised Berlin that Italian forces had "apparently been influenced" by Vatican opposition to German anti-Semitism.{{sfnp|Gilbert|1986|p=466}} As anti-Axis feeling grew in Italy, the use of [[Vatican Radio]] to broadcast papal disapproval of race murder and anti-Semitism angered the Nazis.{{sfnp|Gilbert|2004|pp=308, 311}} When Mussolini and his regime were [[Overthrow of Mussolini|overthrown]] in July 1943, the Germans moved to occupy Italy and commenced a roundup of Jews.

Around 4% of [[Italian resistance movement|Resistance forces]] were formally Catholic organisations, but Catholics dominated other "independent groups" such as the ''[[Fiamme Verdi]]'' and ''Osoppo'' partisans, and there were also Catholic militants in the [[Garibaldi Brigades]], such as [[Benigno Zaccagnini]], who later served as a prominent [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democrat]] politician.{{sfnp|O'Reilly|2001|p=178}} In Northern Italy, tensions between Catholics and [[Communist Party of Italy|communists]] in the movement led Catholics to form the ''Fiamme Verdi'' as a separate brigade of Christian Democrats.{{sfnp|O'Reilly|2001|p=218}} After the war, ideological divisions between former partisans re-emerged, becoming a hallmark of [[Politics of Italy#History of the post-war political landscape|post-war Italian politics]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Clark |first=Simon |year=2018 |chapter=Post-War Italian Politics: Stasis and Chaos |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z2V9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA30 |title=Terror Vanquished: The Italian Approach to Defeating Terrorism |location=[[Arlington, Virginia]] |publisher=Center for Security Policy Studies at the [[Schar School of Policy and Government]] ([[George Mason University]]) |pages=30–42 |isbn=978-1-7329478-0-1 |lccn=2018955266}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=John |last=Foot |title=The Legacy of the Italian Resistance |journal=[[History Today]] |date=March 2012 |volume=62 |issue= 3 |url=http://www.historytoday.com/blog/2012/03/legacy-italian-resistance}}</ref>

== Examples of clerical fascism ==
[[File:Jozef Tiso (Berlin).jpg|thumb|Roman Catholic priest [[Jozef Tiso]] (right), who was president of the [[Slovak Republic (1939-1945)|Slovak Republic]], a client state of Nazi Germany]]
[[File:NDH - salute.jpg|thumb|right|Catholic prelates led by Archbishop [[Aloysius Stepinac]] at the funeral of [[Marko Došen]], one of the senior [[Ustaše]] leaders, in September 1944]]
[[File:Kosola körttiseuroissa.jpg|thumb|[[Lapua Movement]] members praying, [[Vihtori Kosola]] in the middle]]
[[File:Pla y Deniel marzo 1942.jpg|thumb|[[Francoist Spain|Francoist]] minister [[Esteban Bilbao]] (left) and Catholic archbishop [[Enrique Pla y Deniel]] (center) doing the Fascist salute in [[Toledo Cathedral]], Spain, March 1942]]
Examples of political movements which incorporate certain elements of clerical fascism into their ideologies include:

* the [[Fatherland Front (Austria)|Fatherland Front]] in [[Federal State of Austria|Austria]] led by [[Catholicism in Austria|Austrian Catholic]] Chancellors [[Engelbert Dollfuss]] and [[Kurt Schuschnigg]].
* the [[Rexist Party]] in [[German occupation of Belgium during World War II|Belgium]] led by [[Léon Degrelle]], a [[Catholicism in Belgium|Belgian Catholic]].
* the [[Brazilian Integralist Action]] in [[Vargas Era|Brazil]] led by [[Christianity in Brazil|Brazilian Catholic]] [[Plínio Salgado]].
* the [[Nationalist Liberation Alliance]] in [[Argentina]] led by {{ill|Juan Queraltó|es}}.
* the [[Ustashe|Ustaše]] movement led by [[Poglavnik]] and [[Prime Minister of Croatia|Prime Minister]] [[Ante Pavelić]] in the [[Independent State of Croatia]]{{sfn|Biondich|2007b|pp=383–399}} and its [[Catholic clergy involvement with the Ustaše|supporters in the Croatian Catholic Church]].
* the [[Yugoslav National Movement|ZBOR]] movment led by [[Dimitrije Ljotić]] in the [[Nedic's Serbia]], heavily supported by [[Nikolaj Velimirović]] and [[Serbian Orthodox Church]]
* the [[Lapua Movement]] and the [[Patriotic People's Movement (Finland)|Patriotic People's Movement]] (IKL) in [[Finland]] led by the [[Protestantism in Finland|Lutherans]] ([[Herännäisyys|körtti]]) [[Vihtori Kosola]] and [[Vilho Annala]] respectively. Pastor [[Elias Simojoki]] led the IKL's youth organization the [[Blue-and-Blacks]].
* the [[German Christians (movement)|German Christians]] of the [[Nazi Party]] in [[Nazi Germany]] led by [[Ludwig Müller]] which attempted but failed to unify [[Protestantism in Germany|German Protestants]] during the ''[[Kirchenkampf]]''.
* [[Metaxism]] and the [[4th of August Regime]] in [[Kingdom of Greece|Greece]] which was led by [[Ioannis Metaxas]] and heavily supported the [[Greek Orthodox Church]].
* the [[National Synarchist Union]] in [[Mexico]] led by [[Christianity in Mexico|Mexican Catholic]] [[José Antonio Urquiza]] before his assassination in 1938, it was a revival of the Catholic reaction that triggered the [[Cristero War]]; midcentury, the movement would become the focus of a [[conspiracy theory]] which alleged that it had infiltrated various institutions under the name [[El Yunque (organization)|El Yunque]]. 
* the [[National Radical Camp]] in [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] led by [[Boleslaw Piasecki]], [[Henryk Rossman]], Tadeusz Gluzinski and [[Jan Mosdorf]] which heavily incorporated [[Catholic Church in Poland|Polish Catholicism]] into its ideology, especially the Falangist faction.
* the [[National Union (Portugal)|National Union]] in [[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Portugal]] led by Prime Ministers [[António de Oliveira Salazar]] and [[Marcelo Caetano]]. 
* the [[National-Christian Defense League]]/[[Iron Guard]] of [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]], which was led by the devoutly [[Romanian Orthodox Church|Romanian Orthodox]] [[Corneliu Zelea Codreanu]].
* [[Serbian Action]], an [[Ultranationalism|ultranationalist]] and clerical fascist<ref name="Google books">Dijana Jelača, Maša Kolanović, Danijela Lugarić : [https://books.google.com/books?id=DE4sDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22serbian+action%22+clero-fascist&pg=PA327 ''The Cultural Life of Capitalism in Yugoslavia: (Post)Socialism and Its Other'']</ref> movement, active in Serbia since 2010.<ref name="british council">{{cite web |first1=Predrag |last1=Petrović |first2=Isidora |last2=Stakić |publisher=[[British Council]]|title=Western Balkans: extremism research forum |date=29 May 2018 |url=https://www.britishcouncil.rs/sites/default/files/erf_report_serbia_2018.pdf |website=www.britishcouncil.rs |pages=9–10 |access-date=24 October 2018}}</ref>
* the [[Slovak People's Party|Slovak People's Party (Ľudaks)]] in [[Slovak Republic (1939–1945)|Slovakia]] led by President [[Jozef Tiso]], a Catholic priest.
* the [[FET y de las JONS]] of [[Francoist Spain|Spain]] led by [[Catholicism in Spain|Spanish Catholic]] [[Francisco Franco]], which developed into [[National Catholicism]].
* the [[Silver Legion of America]] in the [[United States]] led by [[William Dudley Pelley]] which combined [[Christianity in the United States|American Christianity]] (specifically [[Protestantism in the United States|Protestantism]]) with [[White nationalism#United States|American white nationalism]].
The [[National Union (Portugal)|National Union]] in [[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Portugal]] led by Prime Ministers [[António de Oliveira Salazar]] and [[Marcelo Caetano]] is not considered Fascist by historians such as [[Stanley G. Payne]], [[Thomas Gerard Gallagher]], [[Juan José Linz]], [[António Costa Pinto]], [[Roger Griffin]], [[Robert Paxton]] and [[Howard J. Wiarda]], though it is considered Fascist by historians such as Manuel de Lucena, Jorge Pais de Sousa, [[Manuel Loff]], and Hermínio Martins.<ref>Manuel de Lucena, ''Interpretações do Salazarismo'', 1984.</ref><ref>Jorge Pais de Sousa, ''O Fascismo Catedrático de Salazar'', Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 2012.</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Manuel |last=Loff |title=O nosso século é Fascista! o mundo visto por Salazar e Franco (1936–1945) |language=pt |trans-title=Our century is Fascist! the world seen by Salazar and Franco (1936–1945) |date=2008 |author-link=Manuel Loff}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Hermínio |last1=Martins |first2=S. |last2=Woolf |title=European Fascism |date=1968}}</ref> One of Salazar's actions was to ban the National Syndicalists/Fascists. Salazar distanced himself from fascism and Nazism, which he criticized as a "pagan [[Caesarism]]" that did not recognise either legal or moral limits.{{sfn|Kay|1970|p=68}}

[[Francoist Spain]] is often cited as a critical example of clerical fascism, defined by the official state ideology of ''[[National Catholicism|Nacionalcatolicismo]]'' (National Catholicism). This ideology was instrumental in restoring the political and social hegemony of the Catholic Church over all aspects of Spanish public life, including education, censorship, and family law.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Franco regime, 1936–1975 |date=1987 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |isbn=978-0-299-11074-1 |editor-last=Payne |editor-first=Stanley G. |location=Madison, Wis}}</ref>

The Croatian [[Ustaše]] regime, which ruled the [[Independent State of Croatia]] (NDH), is often cited as the most extreme manifestation of clerical fascism. The regime was characterized by a potent fusion of Croatian nationalism, fascism, and militant Catholicism, which was essential to enabling its brutal program of [[genocide]] against [[Serbs]], [[Jews]], and [[Romani people|Roma]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tomasevich |first=Jozo |title=War and Revolution in Yugoslavia}}</ref>

Likewise, the [[Fatherland Front (Austria)|Fatherland Front]] in [[Federal State of Austria|Austria]] led by [[Catholicism in Austria|Austrian Catholic]] Chancellors [[Engelbert Dollfuss]] and [[Kurt Schuschnigg]] is often not regarded as a fully fascist party.  It has been called semi-Fascist and even imitation Fascist. The regime is a key example of a [[Christian corporatism|Christian Corporatist]] State, known as the ''[[Ständestaat]].'' The system explicitly modeled its authoritarian political and social structure on Catholic teachings.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pauley |first=Bruce F. |title=Hitler and the forgotten Nazis: a history of Austrian national socialism |date=1987 |publisher=Univ. of North Carolina Pr |isbn=978-0-8078-4182-2 |edition=2. print |location=Chapel Hill}}</ref> Dollfuss was murdered by the Nazis, shot in his office by the SS and left to bleed to death. Initially, his regime received support from Fascist Italy, which formed the [[Stresa Front]] with the United Kingdom and France.<ref>{{cite web |title=1934: Eher 'Kanzlerdiktatur' als 'Christlicher Ständestaat' |url=https://www.katholisch.at/aktuelles/147172/1934-eher-kanzlerdiktatur-als-christlicher-staendestaat |website=Katholische Kirche Österreich |access-date=28 March 2025}}</ref>

The distinctive economic model used by these states, [[corporatism]], sought to replace [[liberal capitalism]] and class conflict with state-supervised vocational corporations. This "Third Way" economic and social system was justified by the principles outlined in the papal encyclicals ''[[Rerum novarum|Rerum Novarum]]'' and ''[[Quadragesimo anno|Quadragesimo Anno]]'', which advocated for a socio-economic order based on Catholic doctrine.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Payne |first=Stanley G. |title=History of Fascism, 1914–1945 |date=2014 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |isbn=978-0-299-14873-7 |location=Madison}}</ref>

===Use of the term===
Scholars who accept the use of the term ''clerical fascism'' debate about which of the listed examples should be dubbed "clerical fascist", with the Ustaše being the most widely included example. In the examples which are cited above, the degree of official Catholic support and the degree of clerical influence over lawmaking and government both vary. Moreover, several authors reject the concept of a ''clerical fascist régime'', arguing that an entire fascist régime does not become "clerical" if elements of the clergy support it, while others are not prepared to use the term "clerical fascism" outside the context of what they call the ''fascist epoch'', between the ends of the two [[world wars]] (1918–1945).{{sfn|Griffin|2007|pp=213–227}}

Some scholars consider certain contemporary movements forms of clerical fascism, such as [[Christian Identity]] and [[Christian Reconstructionism]] in the [[United States]];<ref name = "berlet1">{{cite book |author1-link=Chip Berlet |last1=Berlet |first1=Chip |editor1-last=Griffin |editor1-first=Roger |editor1-link=Roger Griffin |title=Fascism as a Totalitarian Movement |date=2005 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-415-34793-8|page=196|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uWfaAAAAQBAJ&q=%22christian+reconstructionism%22+%22clerical+fascism%22&pg=PA196|access-date=23 November 2014 |chapter=Christian Identity: The Apocalyptic Style, Political Religion, Palingenesis, and Neo-Fascism |quote=Lyons and I put Christian Identity into the category of clerical fascism, and we also included the militant theocratic Protestant movement called Christian Reconstructionism... a case can be made for... the Hindu nationalist (Hinduvata) Bharatiya Janata Party in India (which grew out of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Hindu religious movement).|ref=berlet1}}</ref> "the most virulent form" of [[Islamic fundamentalism]],<ref name=berlet2>{{cite book |author1-link=Chip Berlet |last1=Berlet |first1=Chip |editor1-last=Langman |editor1-first=Lauren |editor2-last=Kalekin-Fishman |editor2-first=Devorah |title=The Evolution of Alienation: Trauma, Promise, and the Millennium |page=130 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nIZctokjRlQC&q=%22islamic+fundamentalism%22+%22clerical+fascism%22&pg=PA130 |chapter=When Alienation Turns Right: Populist Conspiracism, the Apocalyptic Style, and Neofascist Movements |year=2006 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9780742518353 |quote=In the most virulent form, theocratic Islamic fundamentalism could be a form of clerical fascism (theocratic fascism built around existing institutionalized clerics). This is a disputed view...}}</ref> [[Islamism]];<ref name = "mozaffari1">{{cite journal |title=What is Islamism? History and Definition of a Concept |last1=Mozaffari |first1=Mehdi |journal=Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions |date=March 2007 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=17–33 |quote="‘Clerical fascism’ is perhaps the nearest concept which comes closest to Islamism."
|url=http://pure.au.dk/portal/files/22326292/What_is_Islamism_Totalitarian_Movements_article.pdf |access-date=23 November 2014 |doi=10.1080/14690760601121622 |s2cid=9926518}}</ref> and [[Hindutva]] in [[India]].<ref name="berlet1" />

The political theorist [[Roger Griffin]] warns against the "hyperinflation of clerical fascism".{{sfn|Griffin|2007|p=215}} According to Griffin, the use of the term "clerical fascism" should be limited to "the peculiar forms of politics that arise when religious clerics and professional theologians are drawn either into collusion with the ''secular'' ideology of fascism (an occurrence particularly common in [[interwar period|interwar]] [[Europe]]); or, more rarely, manage to mix a theologically illicit cocktail of deeply held religious beliefs with a fascist commitment to saving the [[nation]] or [[Race (human categorization)|race]] from [[decadence]] or collapse".{{sfn|Griffin|2007|p=213}} Griffin adds that "clerical fascism" "should never be used to characterize a political movement or a regime in its entirety, since it can at most be a faction within fascism", while he defines fascism as "a revolutionary, secular variant of ultranationalism bent on the total rebirth of society through human agency".{{sfn|Griffin|2007|p=224}}

In the case of the [[Slovak State]], some scholars have rejected the use of the term clerical fascism as a label for the regime and they have particularly rejected the use of the term clerical fascist as a label for [[Jozef Tiso]].{{sfn|Ward|2013|p=267}}

== See also ==
* [[Alois Hudal]]
* [[Catholic Church and Nazi Germany]]
* [[Christian Nationalism]]
* [[Christofascism]]
* [[Clerical philosophers]]
* [[Hindu nationalism]]
* [[Hindutva]]
* [[Islamic nationalism]]
* [[Islamofascism]]
* [[Kahanism]]
* [[National Union (Italy, 1923)]]
* [[Para-fascism]]
* [[Positive Christianity]]
* [[Proto-fascism]]
* [[Religious nationalism]]
* [[Ratlines (World War II aftermath)]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* [[Walter K. Andersen]]. "Bharatiya Janata Party: Searching for the Hindu Nationalist Face", in ''The New Politics of the Right: Neo-Populist Parties and Movements in Established Democracies'', ed. Hans-Georg Betz and Stefan Immerfall (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998), pp.&nbsp;219&ndash;232. {{ISBN|0-312-21134-1}}; {{ISBN|0-312-21338-7}}.
* Stefan Arvidsson. ''Aryan Idols: The Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science''. ([[University of Chicago Press]], 2006). {{ISBN|0-226-02860-7}}.
* Partha Banerjee, ''In the Belly of the Beast: The Hindu Supremacist RSS and BJP of India'' (Delhi, India: Ajanta, 1998). {{OCLC|43318775}} <!-- ONLY the WorldCat OCLC number provides useful info {{Listed Invalid ISBN|81-202-0504-2}} -->
* {{Cite journal |last=Biondich |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Biondich |title=Religion and Nation in Wartime Croatia: Reflections on the Ustaša Policy of Forced Religious Conversions, 1941–1942 |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |volume=83 |issue=1 |year=2005 |pages=71–116 |doi=10.1353/see.2005.0063 |jstor=4214049 |s2cid=151704526}}
* {{Cite book |last=Biondich |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Biondich |chapter=Controversies Surrounding the Catholic Church in Wartime Croatia, 1941–45 |title=The Independent State of Croatia 1941–45 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2007a |pages=31–59 |isbn=9780415440554 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6p1pAAAAMAAJ}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Biondich |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Biondich |title=Radical Catholicism and Fascism in Croatia, 1918–1945 |journal=Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions |volume=8 |issue=2 |year=2007b |pages=383–399 |doi=10.1080/14690760701321346 |s2cid=145148083}}
* Charles Bloomberg and [[Saul Dubow]], eds., ''Christian-Nationalism and the Rise of the Afrikaner Broederbond in South Africa, 1918–48'' (Bloomington, Indiana: [[Indiana University Press]], 1989). {{ISBN|0-253-31235-3}}
* {{cite book |last1=Braham |first1=Randolph L. |author1-link=Randolph L. Braham |last2=Miller |first2=Scott |title=The Nazis Last Victims: The Holocaust in Hungary |location=Detroit, Michigan |publisher=[[Wayne State University Press]] |orig-date=1998 |date=2002 |isbn=0-8143-2737-0}}
* {{Cite book |last=Bulajić |first=Milan |author-link=Milan Bulajić |title=The Role of the Vatican in the break-up of the Yugoslav State: The Mission of the Vatican in the Independent State of Croatia |series=Ustashi Crimes of Genocide |year=1994 |location=Belgrade |publisher=Stručna knjiga |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GS4_OgAACAAJ}}
* {{Cite book |last=Bulajić |first=Milan |author-link=Milan Bulajić |title=Jasenovac: The Jewish-Serbian Holocaust (the role of the Vatican) in Nazi-Ustasha Croatia (1941–1945) |year=2002 |location=Belgrade |publisher=Fund for Genocide Research, Stručna knjiga |isbn=9788641902211 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CgJnAAAAMAAJ}}
* {{Cite book |last=Cornwell |first=John |author-link=John Cornwell (writer) |title=Hitler's Pope: The Silence of Pius XII |year=1999 |location=London, England |publisher=[[Viking Books]] |url=https://archive.org/details/hitlerspope00john |url-access=registration |quote=editions:PeHUCuKZwW4C. |isbn=9780670876204}}
* {{cite web |last=Eatwell |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Eatwell |year=2003 |url=http://staff.bath.ac.uk/mlsre/ReflectionsonFascismandReligion.htm |title=Reflections on Fascism and Religion |access-date=14 February 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070501024852/http://staff.bath.ac.uk/mlsre/ReflectionsonFascismandReligion.htm |archive-date=1 May 2007}}
* [[Ainslie T. Embree]], "The Function of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: To Define the Hindu Nation", in ''Accounting for Fundamentalisms, The Fundamentalism Project''. 4th ed. [[Martin E. Marty]] and R. Scott Appleby (Chicago, Illinois: [[University of Chicago Press]], 1994), pp.&nbsp;617&ndash;652. {{ISBN|0-226-50885-4}}.
* {{Cite book |last=Falconi |first=Carlo |author-link=Carlo Falconi |title=The Silence of Pius XII |year=1970 |location=Boston, Massachusetts and Toronto, Canada |publisher=Little, Brown, and Company |url=https://archive.org/details/silenceofpiusxii00falc |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |editor1-last=Feldman |editor1-first=Matthew |editor2-last=Turda |editor2-first=Marius |editor3-last=Georgescu |editor3-first=Tudor |year=2008 |title=Clerical Fascism in Interwar Europe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KcfhAQAAQBAJ |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=9781317968993}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gilbert |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Gilbert |year=1986 |title=The Holocaust: the Jewish tragedy |url=https://archive.org/details/holocaustjewisht0000gilb |url-access=registration |publisher=Collins |isbn=0-00-216305-5}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gilbert |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Gilbert |title=The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1mQBeR9F0isC&pg=PP1 |year=2004 |publisher=[[Henry Holt and Company]] |isbn=978-1-4299-0036-2}}
* {{Cite book |editor-last=Griffin |editor-first=Roger |editor-link=Roger Griffin |title=Fascism, Totalitarianism and Political Religion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uWfaAAAAQBAJ |year=2005 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=9781136871689}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Griffin |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Griffin |title=The 'Holy Storm': 'Clerical fascism' through the Lens of Modernism |journal=Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions |volume=8 |issue=2 |year=2007 |pages=213–227 |doi=10.1080/14690760701321130 |s2cid=143765495}}
* {{cite book |last=Juergensmeyer |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Juergensmeyer |title=The New Cold War?: Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State |location=Berkeley, California |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |date=1993 |isbn=0-520-08651-1}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Kay |first1=Hugh |title=Salazar And Modern Portugal |date=1970 |publisher=Hawthorn Books |isbn=9783785700785 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.117820}}
* {{Cite book |last=Kertzer |first=David I. |author-link=David Kertzer |title=The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe |year=2014 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xc3QAgAAQBAJ |isbn=9780198716167}}
* [[Walter Laqueur|Laqueur, Walter]] (1966). ''Fascism: Past, Present, Future''. New York; Oxford, England: [[Oxford University Press]], 1997. {{ISBN|0-19-511793-X}}
* Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera, ''The Green Shirts and the Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Romania''. Iaşi, Romania and Oxford, England: The Center for Romanian Studies, 2001. {{ISBN|973-9432-11-5}}.
* {{Cite book |editor1-last=Nelis |editor1-first=Jan |editor2-last=Morelli |editor2-first=Anne |editor3-last=Praet |editor3-first=Danny |title=Catholicism and Fascism in Europe 1918–1945 |year=2015 |publisher=Georg Olms |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z41wCQAAQBAJ |isbn=9783487421278}}
* {{Cite book |last=Novak |first=Viktor |author-link=Viktor Novak |title=Magnum Crimen: Half a Century of Clericalism in Croatia |volume=1b |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b1jyvQAACAAJ |year=2011 |location=Jagodina |publisher=Gambit |isbn=9788676240494}}
* {{Cite book |last=Novak |first=Viktor |author-link=Viktor Novak |title=Magnum Crimen: Half a Century of Clericalism in Croatia |volume=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vF9GMwEACAAJ |year=2011 |location=Jagodina |publisher=Gambit |isbn=9788676240494}}
* {{Cite book |last=O'Reilly |first=Charles T. |title=Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943–1945b |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2LBvZPXmmqoC&pg=PA218 |year=2001 |publisher=[[Lexington Books]] |isbn=978-0-7391-0195-7}}
* [[Walid Phares]], ''Lebanese Christian Nationalism: The Rise and Fall of an Ethnic Resistance'' (Boulder, Colorado: L. Rienner, 1995). {{ISBN|1-55587-535-1}}
* {{Cite book |last=Phayer |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Phayer |title=The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965 |year=2000 |location=Bloomington, Indiana and Indianapolis, Indiana |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |isbn=9780253337252 |url=https://archive.org/details/catholicchurchho00phay |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Phayer |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Phayer |title=Pius XII, the Holocaust, and the Cold War |year=2008 |location=Bloomington, Indiana and Indianapolis, Indiana |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |isbn=9780253349309 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CgTZAAAAMAAJ}}
* {{Cite book |last=Pollard |first=John F. |author-link=John F. Pollard |chapter=Clerical Fascism: Context, Overview and Conclusion |title=Clerical Fascism in Interwar Europe |year=2008 |location=London, England and New York |publisher=[[Routledge]] |pages=221–234 |isbn=9781317968993 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KcfhAQAAQBAJ}}
* {{cite book |last=Pollard |first=John F. |author-link=John F. Pollard |date=2014 |title=The Vatican and Italian Fascism, 1929–32: A Study in Conflict |location=[[Cambridge]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-26870-7}}
* {{Cite book |last=Rhodes |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Rhodes |title=The Vatican in the Age of the Dictators 1922–1945 |year=1973 |location=New York |publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston |url=https://archive.org/details/vaticaninageof00rhod |url-access=registration |isbn=9780030077364}}
* {{Cite book |last=Rivelli |first=Marco Aurelio |author-link=Marco Aurelio Rivelli |year=1998 |title=Le génocide occulté: État Indépendant de Croatie 1941–1945 |language=fr |trans-title=Hidden Genocide: The Independent State of Croatia 1941–1945 |location=Lausanne |publisher=L'age d'Homme |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QwBnceJfwgUC |isbn=9782825111529}}
* {{Cite book |last=Rivelli |first=Marco Aurelio |author-link=Marco Aurelio Rivelli |title=L'arcivescovo del genocidio: Monsignor Stepinac, il Vaticano e la dittatura ustascia in Croazia, 1941–1945 |language=it |trans-title=The Archbishop of Genocide: Monsignor Stepinac, the Vatican and the Ustaše dictatorship in Croatia, 1941–1945 |location=Milano, Italy |publisher=Kaos |year=1999 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NQtnAAAAMAAJ |isbn=9788879530798}}
* {{Cite book |last=Rivelli |first=Marco Aurelio |author-link=Marco Aurelio Rivelli |title='Dio è con noi!': La Chiesa di Pio XII complice del nazifascismo |language=it |trans-title='God is with us!': The Church of Pius XII accomplice to Nazi Fascism |location=Milano, Italy |publisher=Kaos |year=2002 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pwPZAAAAMAAJ |isbn=9788879531047}}
* {{cite book |last=Rothkirchen |first=Livia |chapter=Vatican Policy and the 'Jewish Problem' in Independent Slovakia (1939–1945) |editor-first=Michael R. |editor-last=Marrus |title=The Nazi Holocaust |volume=3 |location=Wesport |publisher=Meckler |date=1989 |pages=1306–1332 |isbn=0-88736-255-9}} or {{ISBN|0-88736-256-7}}
* {{Cite book |last=Rychlak |first=Ronald J. |author-link=Ronald J. Rychlak |title=Hitler, the War, and the Pope |edition=Revised and expanded |year=2010 |location=South Bend, Indiana |publisher=Our Sunday Visitor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XmD8CwAAQBAJ |isbn=9781612781969}}
* {{Cite book |editor1-last=Schindley |editor1-first=Wanda |editor2-last=Makara |editor2-first=Petar |title=Jasenovac: Proceedings of the First International Conference and Exhibit on the Jasenovac Concentration Camps |year=2005 |publisher=Dallas Publishing |isbn=9780912011646 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pAJnAAAAMAAJ}}
* {{cite book |last=Volovici |first=Leon |title=Nationalist Ideology and Antisemitism: The Case of Romanian Intellectuals in the 1930s |location=Oxford, England |publisher=[[Pergamon Press]] |date=1991 |isbn=0-08-041024-3}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Ward |first1=James Mace |title=Priest, Politician, Collaborator: Jozef Tiso and the Making of Fascist Slovakia |date=2013 |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |location=Ithaca, New York |isbn=978-0-8014-6812-4 |language=en}}
*Wolff, Richard J. “The Catholic Church and the Dictatorships in Slovakia and Croatia, 1939–1945.” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia 88, no. 1/4 (1977): 3–30. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44210893.
* Various authors, ''‘Clerical Fascism’ in Interwar Europe'', special issue of ''Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions'', Volume 8, Issue 2, 2007.
{{refend}}

{{Fascism}}
{{Religion and politics}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1920s neologisms]]
[[Category:Clericalism|Fascism]]
[[Category:Fascism and religion]]
[[Category:Totalitarian ideologies]]