R i g h t a r d i a: Wikipedia Blast from the past: the Nazis and the Vatican

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Wikipedia Blast from the past: the Nazis and the Vatican

The Reichskonkordat is the concordat between the Holy See and Germany, guaranteeing the rights of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was signed on July 20, 1933 by Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli (who later became Pope Pius XII) and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen on behalf of Pope Pius XI and President Paul von Hindenburg respectively.

On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor. On 23 March 1933, his government was given dictatorial powers through the Enabling Act.

Hitler had obtained the votes of the Centre Party, led by Prelate Ludwig Kaas, by issuing oral guarantees of the party's continued existence and the autonomy of the Church and her educational institutions.

He also promised good relations with the Holy See, which some interpret as a hint to a future concordat or treaty between a church and a state.

Thus, on April 8, Hitler sent his vice chancellor, a Catholic nobleman and former member of the Centre Party, to Rome.

Hitler intended to deal a decisive blow against both his political opponents, as well as potential competitors, while simultaneously gaining and cementing international prestige amongst Catholic nations.

Many conservatives have suggested Hitler was an atheist, but Hitler had been raised Roman Catholic. Why would an atheist negotiate with the Vatican? Some historians believe that Hitler wanted to establish a new religion in Germany that had elements of Catholicism and his own personal beliefs about he occult.

In addition, if Hitler and the Nazis were atheists, why did they paint Teutonic crosses on their warplanes and tanks?

Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber wrote to Cardinal Pacelli on April 10, 1933 advising that defending the Jews would be wrong:

because that would transform the attack on the Jews into an attack on the Church; and because the Jews are able to look after themselves.

At an April 26, meeting with representatives of the German Bishops’ Conference, Hitler declared:

I have been attacked because of my handling of the Jewish question. The Catholic Church considered the Jews pestilent for fifteen hundred years, put them in ghettos, etc., because it recognized the Jews for what they were.

In the epoch of liberalism the danger was no longer recognized. I am moving back toward the time in which a fifteen-hundred-year-long tradition was implemented.

I do not set race over religion, but I recognize the representatives of this race as pestilent for the state and for the Church, and perhaps I am thereby doing Christianity a great service by pushing them out of schools and public functions . . .

The Vatican was unable to include Catholic clergy and organisations in politics. Its role in politics was solely to the religious and charitable field.

The Nazis slowly eliminated the Catholic Centre Party. One of Hitler's key conditions for agreeing to the concordat, in violation of earlier promises, had been the dissolution of the Centre Party.