Catholicism vs the Nazis

Recently I had a discussion with a correspondent who asserted that the Catholic Church did not oppose the Nazis, and that the Concordat signed between the Vatican and the German government in 1933 meant that Catholics in Germany were not able to oppose the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis.  This article is based upon my response to those assertions.  For more about the Catholic Church, Hitler, and the Nazis, see my articles The Catholic Church and the Nazis, and Hitler - Christian, Atheist, or Neither?

Did the Vatican's Concordat with Hitler prohibit German Catholics from opposing the persecution of the Jews?

For starters, the full text of the Concordat can be found on-line at http://www.newadvent.org/docs/ss33co.htm.

This first question is mainly related to Articles 16 and 32 of the Concordat.  Article 16 dealt with Bishops taking an oath of loyalty to the nation.  I have attempted to demonstrate below that this did not prevent the Church from recognising and  responding to the immoral activities of the German government.  Article 32 excluded clergy from belonging to political parties, but it should be pointed out that the Supplementary Protocol to the Concordat expanded upon Article 32 to say that the Article "does not involve any sort of limitation of official and prescribed preaching and  interpretation of the dogmatic and moral teachings and principles of the Church."  It was these moral teachings that the Nazis contravened so radically and that the Church staunchly upheld, as I try to show here.

Having read the Concordat it seems apparent to me that the Church's concern was simply religious in nature and was motivated by concern for the welfare of souls in its care.  All the articles seem reasonable and prudent and in no way support the racism or violence of the Nazis.

Although some may argue that German Catholics might have done more in resisting Hitler, I think it is misleading to say that the Concordat prevented Catholics from opposing the persecutions.

There were many Catholic martyrs killed for resisting Hitler or who died in concentration camps for helping the  Jews.  Several of these have been honoured by Pope John Paul II in recent years.  Examples include Saint Maximilian Kolbe and Saint Edith Stein.  There is also Father Rupert Mayer, who preached that one could not be both a Catholic and a Nazi.  See http://www.holycross.edu/departments/library/website/hiatt/hero5.htm for some  biographical information on these martyrs, and for evidence that the Concordat, while intended to secure rights  for the Church in Germany, did not prevent Catholics from opposing the violation of those rights.  Besides, once the concordat was signed, Hitler broke its provisions almost straight away, in spite of saying upon his ascension in 1933 that "The national Government sees in the two Christian religions [Catholicism and Protestantism] the most important factors for the  maintenance of our folk. Their rights will not be touched."

There are plenty of resources documenting the activities of Catholics in opposition to Hitler's policies.  One example among many is the German bishops' common pastoral letter of June 26, 1941, which included the following:
 

"There are however also holy duties of conscience from which no one can free us and which we must fulfill even if it costs us our own lives: Never under any conditions may man blaspheme God; never may he hate his fellow man; never may he kill an innocent person outside of war and justified self-defense…"


Similarly, in February 1936, in a sermon given at Xanten, Bishop Count von Galen made the following comments regarding the numerous martyrs from the period of the Church's struggle in the Third Reich:

 
"There  are fresh graves in German states in which rest the ashes of those whom the Catholic people consider to be martyrs of faith."


These citations, and several others, can be found at http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/antiholo/struggle.html.
 

Did the Vatican ever directly criticise the Nazis?

Even if it were true that the Church did not criticise the Nazis by name, its intentions were clear.  This is illustrated by the comments of the German ambassador to the Vatican during the War, Baron von Weizsacker.  In January 1940, von Weizsacker said:
"To be sure the Vatican does express itself in general terms, but it is totally clear who is  meant." (Dieter Albrecht, Katholische Kirche im Dritten Reich, Mainz, 1976, p. 187, cited in Groppe, The  Church and the Jews in the Third Reich).


The Nazis certainly knew how the Church felt.  In Germany in 1935 Hermann Goering said:

"Catholic believers carry away but one impression from attendance at divine services and that is that the Catholic Church rejects the institutions of the Nationalist State."


Besides, it is a fact that the Churchdid speak out directly against the Nazis.  In 1930 Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) arranged a series of articles in L'Osservatore Romano that strongly criticized  Nazism. The October 11, 1930 article said:

"Belonging to the National Socialist Party of Hitler is irreconcilable with the Catholic Conscience."
These articles were reprinted in diocesan newspapers around the world, but especially in Germany, where bishops and priests emphasized that this was official Church teaching.

In 1935 at Lourdes in France, Cardinal Pacelli told an estimated 325,000 pilgrims, including many Germans, that:

"the Church will never come to terms with Nazis as long as they persist in their racial philosophy."


After becoming Pope Pius XII, Pacelli spoke and wrote frequently against racism.  The Nazis arrested, imprisoned or executed anyone caught listening to Vatican Radio because of its anti-Nazi message.

The New York Times editorial for Christmas 1941 said:

"Pius XII is a lonely voice in the silence and darkness  enveloping Europe this Christmas."


Pius, according to the Times, had "placed himself squarely against Hitlerism."

The October 11, 1942 Editorial of the Times of London said:

"A study of the words which Pope Pius XII has addressed since his accession leaves no room for doubt. He condemns the worship of force and its concrete  manifestation in the suppression of national liberties and the persecution of the Jewish race."


After the Pope's 1942 Christmas broadcast to the world, the German SS analysis of his message said:

"The Pope has repudiated the National Socialist New European Order. His speech is one long attack on everything we stand for. God, he says, regards all peoples and races as worthy of the same consideration. Here he is clearly speaking in behalf of the Jews and makes himself the mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals."


And of course there is the encyclical promulgated before the war in 1937 by Pope Pius XI, which was drafted  by Eugenio Pacelli before he became Pope, Mit brennender Sorge.  The English subtitle was "Encyclical on the Church and the German Reich".  In contrast to what some have said about the lack of criticism of the Nazis from the Vatican, this was one of the strongest condemnations of a national regime that the Holy See had ever published.  It was written in German rather than Latin, and was smuggled into Germany, secretly distributed, and read at the Masses on Palm Sunday, March 14, 1937.  It condemned the persecution of the Church in Germany and also the neopaganism of Nazi theories, the idolizing of the state, and the use of race to judge human value.  It starts off by discussing the Concordat, and, with particular relevance to our discussion here, has this to say in Article 5:
 

"Should the day ever come to place before the world the account of Our efforts, every honest mind will see on which side are to be found the promoters of peace, and on which side its disturbers. Whoever had left in his soul an atom of love for truth, and in his heart a shadow of a sense of justice, must admit that, in the course of these anxious and trying years following upon the conclusion of the concordat, every one of Our words, every one of Our acts, has been inspired by the binding law of treaties. At the same time, anyone must acknowledge, not without surprise and reprobation, how the other contracting party emasculated the terms of the treaty, distorted their meaning, and eventually considered its more or less official violation as a normal policy. The moderation We showed in spite of all this was not inspired by motives of worldly interest, still less by unwarranted weakness, but merely by Our anxiety not to draw out the wheat with the cockle; not to pronounce open judgment, before the public was ready to see its force; not to impeach other people's honesty, before the evidence of events should have torn the mask off the systematic hostility leveled at the Church."


I have cited some relevant sections from this encyclical on another webpage about the Catholic Church and the Nazis, but Article 8 in particular bears repeating as a direct rebuttal of the Nazi world-view:

 
"Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community--however necessary and honorable be their function in  worldly things--whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds."


One last citation about the Church's willingness to speak out against the Nazis (although there are many more) comes from Rabbi Pinchas Lapide, who defended Pope Pius XII from similar accusations in his book Three Popes and the Jews (the emphasis is mine):
 

"If fairness and historical justice are keystones of Jewish morality, then keeping silent in view of slanderous  attacks on a benefactor is an injustice... Did not Pius speak out clearly against Nazism, for equal mercy  towards all the victims of the persecution, doubtlessly also towards the Jews, in his many radio appeals, pastoral letters, embassies and letters to his bishops? Would these neo-heathens, who shamelessly disregarded the divine law and the basic commands of Jesus, have listened to any appeal from Rome? And would Pius have been able to defy Hitler, with absolutely no power -  and at the same time have been able to go on saving Jews secretly? ... Whoever is of the opinion that the situation could not have gotten any worse, should remember that after all far more than two million Jews - more than one quarter of the European Jews - did indeed survive Hitler's butchery, even if just barely - thanks to the help of the Church, bishops, priests, laymen" (Pinchas E. Lapide, Three Popes and the Jews, New York, 1967).

Did the Catholic Centre Party Vote for Hitler?

As I understand it, the Catholic Centre Party was simply a political party representing a Catholic constituency in Germany.  It was not a religious organisation directly affiliated with the Church, so its activities are not strictly germane to our discussion.  But yes, they did vote for Hitler's Enabling Act which gave him the power to ignore the constitution.  However this was only along with the majority of the Reichstag, the German Parliament, which as a whole was under a lot of pressure from Nazi Storm Troopers and the SS.  Once Hitler was in power, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, "the Centre Party was dissolved by the Nazi-dominated government in July 1933".
 

Conclusion

In conclusion then, I think the Church's response to the Nazis was as clear and direct as could be reasonably expected.  A lot of people these days forget the danger that people could be placed in if they were under the power of the Nazis and associated with those condemning German activities.  A point worth remembering in this regard is what happened in the Netherlands.  There were more protests by Dutch bishops than anywhere else in Western Europe, and as a consequence the Nazis came down really hard on the Jews in Holland (even those that were Catholic).  A larger percentage of Jews in Holland were lost than anywhere else in the West. Some 100,000, or 80% of the entire Jewish population in the country, were killed by the Nazis.

Could the Church have done more?  Perhaps.  But in looking at this issue we should never forget the difficulties and perils of witnessing to the truth in those dangerous times.

Except where specified otherwise, the contents of this website are © copyright KiwiCatholic.com.  Articles may be downloaded or printed out for private reading, but may not be uploaded to another Internet site or published, electronically or otherwise, without express permission from the author.

Random Quote: "Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least" - Goethe