An analogy too far

Slightly jaw-dropping stuff this:

Imagine that Hitler did not die in his bunker in 1945 but instead cut a deal with the new West German government, giving him continued sovereignty over a small patch of Berlin - and continued intellectual hegemony over the millions he had brainwashed during the previous decade. How could a new German dispensation function with this incubus at the heart of the state, second-guessing its every move, checking and trumping every effort to dismantle its ideology?

What on earth could Peter Popham be talking about? Kallingrad perhaps - that little chunk of Russia in Germany? No, this Hitlerite incubus is in fact the Vatican City in Rome. I'm not a Catholic, although my children (if any) will have to be, but it's still both ridiculous and offensive to make a direct comparison between the Pope and Hitler.