Sir Thomas More
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Birth of Thomas More
Admitted to Lincoln's Inn
Leonardo paints Last Supper
Durer illustrates the Revelation, woodcut series
Translates Life of Pico della Mirandola
Raphael paint the stanze for Julius II;
Erasmus writes In Praise of Folly under More's roof and dedicates it
Michelangelo finishes the Sistine Chapel ceiling'
Death of Julius II, Pope.
Sent on mission to Flanders by Henry VIII
Completes Utopia and publishes it at Louvain
Luther's publishes his 95 theses, for academic discussion.
More acts as Royal Secretary. Co-signs peace treaty with France
Quentyn Massys paints a portrait of Erasmus to be sent to More
Raphael is put in charge of building St. Peter by Leo X
More attends king Henri to Field of the Cloth of Gold. Meets
Guillame Budé. Leo X exconìnìunicates Luther
More publishes Responsio ad Lutherum
Zwingli strips all Zurichchurches of old decorations, whitewashed.
Judge at the Star Chamber.
Anne Boleyn, mistress of the King
Holbein makes the great portrait of Sir Thomas More's family
More swom Lord Chancellor
Controversy with Tyndale on heresy and bible translation
Suleiman the Magnificent defeats Hungary and reaches Vienna
Henry announces his divorce;
At Canterbury, clergy submits to Henri's claim of Supremacy
More Refuses the Oath. Sent to Tower of London. Writes Dialogue
of comfort
More writes De Tristitia Christi
Martyrdom of the Carthusians, of John Fisher, and of More
First complete Bible in English published: Coverdale's bible with
Holbein woodcuts
Execution of Tyndale
Execution of Thomas Cromwell
Morets Education
First was page of John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor
Studied humanities at Oxford for 2 years, Greek, Latin and, for relaxation, theater
Switched to legal studies, entering Lincoln Inn in 1496 (18 years old)
Lived for four years with the Carthusians, thinking of becoming a priest: 'In the city, what
is there to move on to live well? Whçn a man is straining in his own power to climb the
steep path of virtue, it turns him back by a thousand devices and sucks him back by its
thousand enticements.' But he decided that he should rather be 'a god-fearing husband
than an immoral priest' and married in 1504.
Lectured on St. Augustine. Became close friend to Erasmus, Holbein, Guillaume Bude
and many other humanists.
More the layman.
More chose to be a layman atthe intellectual service of the Christian commonweal.
actively at work in contemporary society to change the political order and foster peace
and freedom. He lived and died, 'acting of pure necessity for respect unto mine own soul'
'The clearness of my conscience hath made my heart hop for joy' he told Margaret from
the tower in 1534. More saw Marriage as a vocation. According to letters of Erasmus, 'he
arranged for [his young first wife's] education and made her skilled in music of every
kind, and had almost succeeded in making her a person with whom he would gladly have
shared his whole life..'when she died early. More remarried, and always attempted to
adapt the monastic ideal to his household. He educated his girls like his boy. The great
house in Chelsea was, according to Erasmus, 'like Plato's academy, only whereas in the
academy the discussion turned upon geometry and the power of numbers, it is a veritable
school of Christian religion.. . there is never seen any idle. You should hear them playing
skillfully on various instruments of music or watch them pouring over every kind of Latin
or Greek author like busy bees; you would say they were muses toying sweetly in the
loveliest parts of Ionica... The head of the house govems it not by a lofty carriage and
rebukes, but by gentleness and amiable manners.' Chelsea was host to Holbein, Erasmus,
Colet, Bishop Fisher, even Henry VIII. It had awonderful garden, and even a fool. In
1528,100 people each day were fed at Chelsea because the price of food caused famine.
By the time of More's death, twenty two family members lived under its roof: More, his
wife, four married children, their spouses and eleven children, plus an adopted relative.
Utopia (Nowhere).' Being Merry
Thomas More was ever described as 'good company'. 'His expression show the sort of
man he is, always friendly and cheerîul, with something the air of one who smiles easily
and disposed to be meffy rather than serious or solemn, but without a hint of the fool or
the buffoon.' (Erasmus letter to Ulrich von Hutten, 1519)
'I pray you with my children and your household, be merry in God', More wrote to his
wife when abam full of the year's corn had burned to the ground. He praised a letter from
his son because 'he playeth pleasantly with me and returneth my jests again very wittily.'
Utopia is one of these meaningful witty jests. It expresses both his love and distrust for
'this world',power, money, law itself, and for the human intellect. An astonishing mixture
of involvement and detachment, it was his response to being called to court service, a
perplexing choice. 'You must not abandon the ship in a storm because you cannot control
the winds' argues the fictional More when told that politicians are immune to advtce...
'what you cannot turn to good you must make as little bad as you can'. Utopia is a satire
of the present state of Europe, contrasted to the Netherlands and his own home.
More and the Law
More was known for his expeditious handing of the court's business and for returning to many
litigants the money they expected to pay as a deposit. He was highly successful; the city's
merchants often asked him to represent them, and he lectured at Lincoln's Inn on important legal
questions.
In the name of his master, Henry, 'defender of the Faith', More waged savage assault on
presumed heretics. He first wrote counter offensives in the vemacular against the'new
named bretheme', who, under Luther's influence, scorned not only images and relics, but
also the sacraments, the Eucharist, and the clergy; in other words, the visible church, the
common culture of Christendom. As president of the Chancery and Star Chamber, he was
intent on stopping the flow of forbidden books into England from Antwerp. More was
persuaded that the danger of disintegration was deadly, and that there could be no
covenant with the heretics, to be punished by 'deth in ye fyre'. He feared a resurgence of
the social unrest experienced under the Lollards: Simon Fish, for example was calling the
people to tie to carts all accessible monks,'these pious thieves and do-nothings', and to
whip them, naked, in public. More believed in the state being mn as a tight ship.
However, he never resorted to torture or the beating of heretics -'nevre so much as a
ûlyppe on the forhed', but always attempted persuasion. For two years, More followed
his policy of 'hating the crime but not the person'. At hrst, there were abjurations but no
buming until 1531, after which four cases can be attributed to him. He always admired
the courage of these 'misled'martyrs, comparing it to the apathy of bishops 'afraid to get
hurt in the hght'
More the Scholar
His friendship with Erasmus first produced a translation from Lucian. Both men studied
Greek, and believed in satire, wit, fancy and common sense as best way to to reconceive
ideas and institutions. Both wished for the elimination of 'edifying' fables, and a return to
Scripture and Christ. Both fought'foolish confidence and superstitious dread.' Both
adopted the classical ideal of friendship: 'Christianity itself fought to be'that true and
perfect kind of friendship which consists in dying with Christ, living in Christ, and
forming one body and one soul with Christ; it is indeed a communion between men, like
the communion of limbs in the body, one with another.' (Collected V/orks of Erasmus 2,
p.103 Elp. 187) Both believed that intemational peace was the necessary condition of
reform and deplored the policies of Julius II as well as those of the new princes. More's
History of Richard III was a warning to Henry VIII about leaving the true path of
Christian kingship and losing the dream of his early years, 'in which time this Realm was
in quiet and prosperous estate: no feare of outwarde enemies, no warre in hande: the
people towarde the Prynce, not in a constrained feare, but in a willinge and lovinge
obedience: amonge them selfe, the commons in good peace.' (History,pp.4,II,25-30)
More the politician
The only diplomatic success More thought worthy of his epitaph was the reconciliation of
France and Germany at the Treaty of Cambrai, a defeat for Henry's policy but a victory
for peace.
His first speech at the House of Commons was an appeal to the king to allow members
full freedom to speak: 'interpret every mans wordes, howe uncunningly soever they be
couched, to proceed yet ofgood zeale'.
More's concern with heresy came to the fore when Henry asked More to defend him
against Luther after the publication of the Assertion of the Seven Saøaments in 1521 . He
entered into a violent and bitter controversy with Simon Fish and Tyndale, first translator
of the Bible in English, who was putting forth the idea of royal supremacy over the
church. He believed heresy would lead to schism, and shatter the unity of Christendom,
impeding peaceful renovation of a Catholic civilization.
More had hoped to reform England into a modern Catholic nation. Especially, he wished
to reform the Star Chamber into a court grounded 'upon the lawe of reason and the lawe
of God.' When he realized he could not influence the King's policy as Lord Chancellor
any longer, he retired to write further against the Protestants. On the divorce issue, he
kept publicly silent. When first interrogated about his relationship to Elizabeth Warton, a
mystic who spoke against the royal divorce, More pointed out that he had advised Henry
not to make too much of the Pope's authority in his book on the sacraments, since he
must in part be dealt with as another prince, with all the policies and alliances of princes.
He was finally summoned to take the Oath of Secession. According to Roper who
accompanied him in the boat, he 'sodainely rounded me in the eare and said: 'Sonne
Roper, I thancke our Lord the held is worure'More had made up his mind, for God and
conscience. During his fourteen months in the Tower, he reinforced his decision by
writing both A Dialogue of comfort against Tribulation, and a short meditation on Christ
at Gethsemane, which ends with the moment at which Christ was arrested: 'The Sadness
Vf/eariness, Feor , and Prayer of Chiist beþre His Capture'
More's final stand was that Parliament could not dispose of the headship of the Church, a
thing spiritual and international: 'And therefore sith all Christendom is one cotps, I can
not perceive how eny membre therof may withowt the comen assent of the body departe
from the comen hede.' (Correspondence, Letter to Cromwell 199, p.a9\ More at his trial
was asserting the primacy of the laws of God and of reason, ordinances of a thousand
years. He embodied law all his life and died for it, and for the integrity of his conscience,
'of pure necessity for respect unto mine own soul', (LetterS). He knew that the price of
such'treason' was disembowelment, quartering and decapitation.
His final words to his judges were: '... the blessed apostle Paul was present and
consented to the death of Stephen and kept their clothes that stoned him to death, and yet
be they now both twin holy saints in heaven and shall continue there friends forever. So I
verily trust, and shall therefore right heartily pray,that though your Lordships have now
here on earth been judges to my condemnation, we may yet hereafter in Heaven merrily
meet together to our everlasting salvation.'
Useful References
James McConica Thomas More (National Portrait Gallery, London, 1977) short scholarly
Peter Ackroyd Life of Thomas More (Chatto and Windus, London, 1998) Long,
readable, complete biography.
Lecture #4
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World War Ëdemanstrated that the world had really changed, that
Ëurope was no longer motivated by religion, but by much deeper hidden
forces. Christian nations were murderãng each other, and their
denomination had nothing to do with it: Protestant Germany, Catholic
Austria, Orthodox ßulgaria and l\luslim Turkey, had united against
Protestant EngËand, Catholic France and åtaly, and Orthodox Russia.
Thus divided, the church could brãng nt unity. Most clergymen chose
their country over Christ.79 û00 Cathaåic priests were mobilizæd.
Benedict XV was called in Ërance'the Boche (Kraut) Pope,' because he
called for peace. Ëvangelical Americans called for the eliminaTÊon of the
German race in the name of God" And Wiåson was incapæble of pushing
his Ê-eague of Nation ideals; he was seen as't*o theological.'
The new Czech state born of the demise af the Austrian empire
modeled itself on the Ërench Republic. [VÎæzaryk and Benes were freethinkers and introduced anti-clerical Iaws. They also re-established John
Hus's Czech national church which had been obliterated 300 years
earlier. The Catholic Church had supparted the l"{absburgs, helping them
ta keep the peasants under control. lts Bishops were appointed by
Vienna.
Under Masaryk, many Catholic priesis defrocked, married, said mass
in the vernacular and joined the new church, which acquired Catholic
church property. By 1925, ít had 2AA 000 members.fh* Nuncio was
recalled form Prague. Gasparri was calm: they would súfferfrom it in the
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long run. The new Hussite Chureh was deciared schismatic" Horrified,
Catholic Slovak peäsänts vtted agä¡nst the government. To stay in
power, Masaryk had to abandon his anti-religious policies. A pastoral
letter vúâS read, eXCludinü CÕmmUn¡StS, SÕe ialists, freemasons and
sundry liberals fron¡ the rites of baptism, marriage and burial. Masaryk
and Benes had to find a cûmpromise with Rome. They reestablished the
nuncio, returned chureh lands and gave L¡p on control over bishops'
appcintments.
The Sudeten Genman Czech were 95% Cætholic; They proposed a
bishop for Letmeritzer" The arehbishop of Prague supported their
candidate. The Nuncio objected: 'They are Pro7asing this candidate
/ess an retigious grounds than from a political and nationalist
consideration.' Oct 17, 1931) ln respünse, the German Catholics
attacked the nuneio in gross terms" The Vatican pronounced an
anathema on the Sudeten Catholics and their press, suspending their
priests.
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Since Bismark's Kulturkampf of the 187û's, the German bishops had
been eager to prove themselves to be gocd Germans. After f 918, they
feared Bolshevism, which had been successful in Bavaria. Many had
been shocked by the arr*st af 200 promi¡'¡ent ßavarian eatholics when
the Botshevik People's Party took control. They were also afraid that the
Lutherans who were foundinç
a pro-Hitlen Ger{nan Church would take
rver again.
Hitler at first partly cÕncealed his hatred of Christianityfor a while, to
win over the Bavarians, but generally he pushed his'Religion of the
Bload', änd openly despised Christi ans'who will betray anything far the
sake of their miserable little jobs and incornes.' Fie developed a Nazi
liturgy. Hitler wished to replace Chråstianity by a new religion. ('The
heaviest blow ta hwrnanity wa.s the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism
is Chrisf ianity's iltegitimate chitd. Both are inventians af the Jews.') He
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planned to eliminate Christiäns once he got rid of the Jews, which he did
in Poland. His propaganda minister, Himmler, säid We will not rest until
out ChristianitY.'
Some German bis?rop* were openly antl Nazi in 1930. The vicar
general of the Mainz archdiocese forbade Catholics to vote Nazi
because of Hitler's racial policies. The bishops of Breslau, Bavaria and
Cologne alsa attacked Hitler's new 'Positive Christianity' as herctieal, a
nationalistic religior:. Priests talked of mæking soup with Nazi brair¡s,
and of Brown Shirts ês covered in shit. ln fact, in'tr932, the ten districts
we have raoted
most hostile to the Nazi Party were predominæntly Cætholie
But popular 'faseisizationo wäs beEinnEng. Gatholics who were 'gcod
.
Germans'identified with Hitler's pramise To scrap the Versailles treaty if
he came to power. Many were impressed by the Nazi såogans against
Jews'whÕ were destroying mûrality'and'caused the economic crisis'. ln
1930, the Nazis went from I minister, tc 107 seats. Many Catholic
politicians were swinging to the right: they identified The failing Republic
with freemasonry, and they feared a Commur:ist take-over in the ever
worsening eccnomic cnisis.
;
Capitalizing on riots whero 6 million jobless took to street fighting
and on the fear cf Ccmmunism, Goebbels laq",Ênched a successful media
campaign, promising the eÊld cf class warfa¡'e, protection of industry
from nationalization, and w*rk prtgrams. The Nazis, financed by
industrialists, got 37% af the vote in 1932. Fcllowing further rioting and
the setting oR fire of the Reichstag, parliament was dissolved'
Hindenburg appointed Hitlen æs chancellor af Genrnany.
Gåven the constitutional mânner in which Nlazism had come tc power,
Mgr. Kaas, leader of the Centre Party thought it diplomatic to run before
the tide. ln January'1933, he supponted the Enabling Act which gave
Hitler the 213 majority necessary for hEs eonstitutional access to
dictatorial power. Hitler promised to respect the rights of the ehurch,
emphasizing the centrality of Christianity to Germany's revival and
promising ta fight Bolshevism. Protestants acknowledged Hitler on
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March 26, 1933; German bishops lifted the ban ûn Cathollcs joining the
Nazis two days later. hlarch 28, Jewish laws were put into aetion. Jews
were forbidden to settle in some German towns" They were banned fram
business schools and professions" Thomas Mann and Tillich were
rernoved from their university posts. Gennrans boycotted Jewish
business. The Vatican issued'a formaE protest, and the werld boycotted
German products. The Vætican radio condemned anti-Semitic
persecution, and Pius lX hined Jews to his colleges.
Hitler protested this universãl effort't* crush the new Gern¡lan state'.
Cardinal Faulhaber beggæd the Pope to stop thess pratests, because
opposing Jewish laws would insure Catholic persecution" At Fulda, the
German bishops withdrew cãutiously their previtus censure of the party,
hcping to have a maderatlng voice in the Government. Just the same,
both clergy and Iaity were being persecuted. Hitler promised that
persecutions would stop if the e oncordat wæs signed. On June 7 1933,
a peace agr*ement with lialy, France and England,
pledging entente, eollaboration and solidarity. On June I f 933, The
Hitler signed
German bishops published
a pastoral letter, saying that the exclusive
emphasis on race and blood âeads to 'iniustiees vtkích burden the
e hristian eonscienee,' l-ater in Jr-rne 1933, the Jehovah's witnesses, in
an attempt to end pensecut!*n, ccnvened to æffirm theËr support of the
goverr'ìment. The next day l{itler banned Jehovah's Witnosses, burned
their books. EventL:ally they had to weara star and 2000 were sent to
concentration camp.
:
Ën
July 1E33, the'German Çhristians'took eontrol of the Union of the
29 Protestant churches in Germany, and turned ¡t into the German
Ivangelieal Church. Mueller, an advisor to Hitler, was made Reich
Bishop. He proposed the elimination of the Old Testament and a
revision of the New Testament. All pastors were to take an oath of fealty
to Hitler. Alå churches had to exclude converted Jews.
ln reaction, lVlartim
NåermCIfiå*r
formed a Pasf or's Emergency League,
which succeeded in gettinç the Aryan clause eliminated. But he also
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which supported the
published his autobiography,
national revival brought about by the Næzi revolution. However in 1934,
Niemöller revolted aga¡nst the Germar¡ Evangelicæå Ghurch, and
launched the Confessiona! Çhureh. Aware that direct opposition to the
Nazis would not work, the Confessional Church simply opposed key Nazi
dogmas: lt issued the Barmen tomfessãon in April 1934:
The state musf nat be the soÍe order of human life and rep!ace tha
Churah. God is revealed in scripture, and not in the German
people.'
Many Church leaders dissociated themselves from this letter.By the end
of 1935, 700 pastors supporting the Barmen confession had been
arrested. (Ðíetrlckr Bonhoeffer wäs one of them. He wäs hanged in
1945.) Niemöller was sent to concentration tämp. Yet, he asked to be
allowed to fight for Germany in 1939. The Nazis took complete
administrative control cf the German Ëvançelieal churches.
:
:
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I
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On July 20, 1933, six months after !-{itler's æccession to power, the
Vatican signed a concordat with Hitler in an attempt tc protect German
to moderate the movement to the right. Pius Xl and
Pacelli had admired the 'flourishing array of German tatholic
Catholicism and
associations in pre-Hitler Germany. These associations needed a Iegal
status. Hitler's access to power had jeopardizeú previous hand-earned
concordats with ßaden, Bavaria and Prussia. These needed to be
replaeed. Hitler wanted a eoncordat to gaÊn legitimacy in the eyes of
Catholie Germans. The Fope wanted one to çain legal status for the
Church, and have legal grcund for complaints. Since the Central Party
had been destrcyed, Tho Chureh hæd no other political defense. Pacelli
said to Kirkpatnick that this would be at leasT a basis for protests on the
international stage. 'Ta saye
a few sauls, ïNe have the Cavrage to
negotiate with the devil'(Fius'Xlto bishops in Rame, May 33.)
He feared the prospect of Hitler's proposed German National Church,
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äs well as the sueress of a Bolshevie reäet¡on. VÕn Papen, a Catholic
and Hitler's negotiator, had mäde it clear that the Pope could ehoose
between elimination of the Catholic Chr-rrch and a favorable agreement,
which would place Cathoåics ot't an even footing with Protestants.
t:
{
It proves that Nazism was not anti-Christian.
obligated bishops to obey the state.
It was the end of Catholic politics. Work*r parties were dissolved
and al! Cathcåíc Action effiâ$culated"
It
Gerrnans had the right to Catholic education,
Priests were exempted fre m participating in armed conflict
The Catholic e hureh became subsidized by the stale.
But all politi cal lay organizations were now forbidden, thus turning
Catholic assoeiations inta purely spiritual and religious bodies,
without political or econ*mic exister:ce.
Pacelli tried to include protecti*n for baptËzed Jews in the
Concordat, but l-litler anly gave a verbal promise.
Pacelli's main concern was the spiritual welfare of German üatholics:
The sacraments had to be accessible. He said later that he had signed
the Concordat 'ta prevent vrCIrse evils"."ta get a juridicat basis far
Catholic's defense, a shield behind which to pratect eathalics in their
appasitian ta the rising tide of relíEious perseeutrons.'lt was not an
approval of Hitler's regime: 'not an alliance, but an instrument of
defense'. ln any case, l-'{iiEer's governrfient was the legal government of
Germany, and Pacelli had
.a principle: 'The e hurch never
attacks
existing institutians, if vtæits far th*ir collapse.'Urihappiåy this eoncordat
was an international success for Hitler, and lulled Catholic ccnsciences
in Germany.
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the Nigiat of tke i-ong Knivæs (June 1934), Hitler purged his overly
powerful allíes, the SA, replacing them by the SS. The SA were the
power base of Ernst Roehm, ehief protagonist of an'ongoing socialist
radical revolution'. This had been one of the original planks of the Nazi
party. Roehm refused the campromises Hitler deemed necessary to get
On
the army and the leaclers of industry on side. He wanted to nationalize all
industry and to insure that the army would be under l{azi controÊ. Taking
advantage of rumors of æn up*coming putseh by the SA, Hitler had every
important SA leader arrested and shot in the rniddEe of the night. Hitler
eliminated other enemies at the same time. Klausener and Jung
(leaders of Catholic Action), Prcbst (Presäderit of the Sponting
Association af German Catholics), Fritz Gerlich (editor of largest
Catholic paper), all were murdered. Hitler even had their bodies
cremated in defiance of Catholic teaehing. Episcopal paiaces in
Wurzburg, Rotenburg and h/lainz were sacked; former Center Party
people along with 500 priests and nuns were arrested. The whole thing
was duly approved by the Reischstag, ãs the successful put down of a
plot against Hitler.
ln August f 934, after Hindenbi.rrg's death, Hitler was voted as only
ruler of Germany by 88% of the German population" The only strong
opposition was in Berlin and Bavaria" CIn September 15, 1935, the
Nuremberg d-aws were promulgated" They prohibited intermarriage
between Jews and Germäns and dissolved any sueh existinE marriages"
Nazi Party members were thneatened with expulsion if they sent their
children to Catholic schools. Parents ässociations were forbidden. ån
1933, 65% of Munich kids went tc Cathoåic schoo[s; ín 1935,35o/o; in
1937,3o/o. Teachers were asked te find civilian employment unless they
joined the National Socialist Teaehers' Association. All
youth
associations were forbidden, as wsll as badges, uniforms, or religious
souvenirs. At Youth l-abor Camp, adolescegrts were indoctrinated
against 'fhaf arienta! Jewish teaching called Christianity, responsible
for the dectine of the Nordic race and the r¡se of Balshevism.'They
were taught Rosenberg's rac!al iheories and were told that the Pope
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wäS half ."!ewish and a Freemason. Contempt for the church was
expressed publicly: ln 193S, Goering calied Catholic priests 'black
moles, as Venamaus ãS the ræd moles'" ân lt/lunich, fulay Day WaS
declared 'rich in the symbois of bÍoad and earth, halier fo ¿¡s than any
Çhurch hotiday.' Terrcrized, mãny bishops and pastors affirmed their
readiness to serve the Reich'with all the might of body and soul.'
Hitler hated the Pope and the Church; he intended to cantrol his own
'Ge¡'man Church'" He never r*spcnded to Pius Xã's camplaints about
violations of the Concordat.By 1938, he disavowed the concordat as out
of date, and deelared he would scräp it after the wãr. Stilå, many
Catholics supported him. ln 1935, for exampåe, the Saar, & e atholic
state occupied by Ërance, voted to return tc Gerrnany by 447 }At votes
against 48 000.
üfficials everywhere still hoped that Hitler was unawäre of the injustices
committed by his Nazis. ln May 1936, fCIr example, 10 prominent
n'lembers of the Protesiant Confessional e hurch drafted a åetter to Hitler,
which they published in SwitzerEand:
question: !s dechristianization the official caurse of the
government? We reject the valuation Õf raeæ, blood, natianality and
A simple
hanor. Christi ans cannot æ*eept anti-Semitis¡n.'
ln the summer of '36, The Vatiean had proposed to support the Germans
in their pro-Frânco act!on if anti-Catholie acts stopped. Hitler laughed:
'We can do without your aremLts, ytu cannot do without a.Jr arrns.'
*-l)*.-**-"--,.-*,:J*..-'
Official protests fronn the Vatican against the tneatn'¡ent of the Jews
remained so common that Goering complained in 1935 'Cathalic
belieyers are under the impression that the e athoiic Church reiecfs fhe
institutions of the Nationalist Sfafe, from their serrnons and pastaral
leffers on purely potiticat subjecfs.' Fractical action followed: ln 1936,
Pacelli established various Grgãnizati*ns to help Jewish refugees flee.
By 1937 Fius X! who hæd been at first rath*r supportive of right wing
regimes because of their belief in CIrder, hierarchy and authority, had
been totally turned off by Hitler's hyper nationalism, pagan idolatry of the
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state and racisrfi. Violence wäs blætant. Priests attaeking the regime
were being battered. ln January 37, German cardinals Bcrtram, Schulte,
and Faulhaber, alcng with bishops von Galen ænd von Preysing went to
Rome to report *n the Eatest anti-clerical excessës" They helped Pacelli
draw up an encycÊ!cal candemning the Nazi perseeution of the Church -
.lt was smuEgled into Germany and hand
delivered by bieycle tc be read from every pulpit *n Fælm Sunday, March
13, 1937. All copies were eonfiscatcd, their prirrters arrested and their
presses seized. 170 Franciscäns were prosecuted in Koblenz; 1 00CI
monks were arrested in tserlin.
Pius Xl complained to the King of ltaly, to Mussolini, and Ecdged a
formaÊ protest with the ltalian state. He ehallenged Chamberlain to
eounten ltaly and Germany, and to help the refugees. He asked all
universities ta attack openly Hitler's theories. He notified Americæn ænd
Canadian bishops to his'e Jewish scholars and seientists. He told
archbishops to petition their governments to open borders to Jews, ir¡
South America, iR the US, etc. The Fnglish ehurch Times, normallyantiRoman, called
^/îit
Hrenn
nrler
Snrnæ
a
statemenT
'of the
greatest
histarical and maral importanee'" (August 5, 1938)
Meanwhile, ån September tr 937 Hitler invited the international
diplomatic corps to ættend his sensational anti-semitie Nuremberg rally.
They came. As an example of the confusion of European intellectuals,
Gertrud Stein promoted Hitler far the 1938 Nobel Peæce Prize.
ln 1935, Hitler had pressured Von Schuschnig# to sign an agreement
putting Austria under Nazi eontrol, then sent him to concentration camp.
The Pope had hoped Mussolini would cool Hitler back to sanity and had
asked Mussolini to defend Austria against Germany. H* did for a whÌle,
but gave up under llitler's pre.ssure in f 938" Sg% of the Austrians voted
for the ÃnscÍtluss (the annexatiçn of Austria ta Hitler's Germany). Yet
Austria was more than 85% Catholic. Pius Xl had had excellent relations
with the previously assassinated Austrian chancellor Ûolfuss who had
applied Quadragesiftla Anno and int¡-oduced ter¡-ns of the conccrdat into
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taw. He wås heart-brüken. Cardånal lnnitzer, the Austrian primate,
welcomed the ,Ansch/uss. The Vatiean radio denounced him and the
Pape called him to Rorne. lnnitzer had to renounce his first statement
and publish another. Soon the lrlazis sacked his palace. The Jewish
laws were viciously applied in Austria. Any Catholic that opposed them
was persecuted. Pius Xl attacked Hiiåer vioEently, likening him to Juåian
the Apostate.
.t , ",,.
',
.,
,,..i,'
On July 13 1938, under pressure from Hitler, Mussclini promulgated
the first anti-Semitic Eaws in ltaly. Pius X¡ condemned these laws
immediately as a descent into Pagan totalitarianism and apostasy. He
a r*port published by Fascist academics 'Fascism and
Problems'as contrary to funda¡æental Catholic doctrEne. He
condemned
Racial
to oppose the Fascists 'peculiarly
laathsome spirit of separaåism and exaggerated nationalism which,
because un-Christían and irreligious, ends up being inhuman.' He
appointed Jewish scholars fired by the Faseists to the Vatiean library
and the Pontifical Aeademy of Sciences. He insisted that Catholic
universities abroad hire exiled Jewish aeademics. ln a handwritten
letter, he asked Mussolini to exempt tatholic Jews from his antiSemitic laws" A vigorcus campaign was læunched in Osservatore
ordered
CathoEic Action chaplains
Rçmana. Jewish relief organizations were operated openly. The Vatican
hid Torahs and sacred vessels. Catholic Action members published
pamphlets; their press was broken, members beaten and expelled from
the party.
On Sept 20 1938, the dying Pope saÊd to a group of pilgrims:
'Mark vett that in the Catholic Mass, Abraham is our patriarch and
forefather. Anti Semitism is incompatible with the lofty thought
which that fact expresses, tt rs a mavement with vvhich tlte
X
Christians can have nothing to do" No, I say to yau it is
impossibte for æ Christian ta take part in anti-Semitism. lt is
inadmissibte. Through Christ and in Öhrist vle are the spiritual
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Lecture #4
progeny of Abraham. Spiritually, we are
from von Bergen, Sept. 24,1938)
all Semifes. (dispatch
On Krystalnacht, November 9-10 1938, Nazi militants in Germany
taunched a terrible pogrom against the Jewish population, in response
to the assassination of von R'ath, a member of the Paris embassy, by a
young Jew. 600 synagogues were burned, 7tût shops destroyed, 35
0CI0 Jews arrested, 90 killed at random. Bernard Lichtenberg, provost of
the Cathedral in Berlin, spoke from the pulpit: 'The synagogae ls
a
house of God" Jeu¡s are your neighbars.' He was arrested and died on
the way to Dachau concentrætion camp. The dying Pope increased his
efforts to persuade bishops all over the world to help Jews.'Even if I
must be carried there,
lwill give fhis speech; if lcanT talk, it
will be
read.'
After he died, Germany called Pius Xl the arch-enemy of National
Socialism and Mussolini said: 'At last, that stiff-necked ald man is
dead.'But on February 13 1939, the Universal lsraelite Alliance wrote to
Rome 'We shall never forget the kindness and courage of the late
pape.'
That very month 22 OAt Americans attended a pro Nazi rally in Madison
Square Garden.
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CHURCH ËNCoUNrËRS
20rH cULTUBË
t9 Fius
th¡e Rise of Fasaism
XË ænd
19U¡4,M,Ë-R:2010:SA!122
2,41J--Ë*-l=Eçß19.L).
"
Çsu-ßåE*Lo" gUM--ËlgI-S >
W-L-^EK-.9
(cont..)
Pir¡s Xå and
cclEslr?'¡€,in¡ss?r.
On the samë day as he published his anti-Nazi encyclical, Plus Xl
also published ãn encyclical fcrbiddirrg Catholics to join the
Communists. He wanted to make sure that both ideologles be
considered equally abhorrent by cæthoËics.
The Papâey had a long history of anti-eonrmunisrn.
Pius lX wrcte 4 encyclicæls against 'tkis exeerable dactrine calted
ctmmunism'.
Leo Xlll called it 'This deadly plague threateninE the vtnrld'.
lndeed, the Left was proving itself violently anti Catholic.
1
906-1 91
2 saw ar¡tí-c{enica!
governr"n'ae*'rts nn
Spain, an anti-Catholic
revolution in Catalonia and the execution of numerous priests and nuns
in the [beric peninsula.
19'!t Forturgal becanne a Repubñüc" A series of sec¡.¡ãanÊzing åaws were
passed: on divoree, fneedom of the press, expulsion a'f foreign
congregætions, confiscation cf the wealth of the ..lesuits, dissolutËon of
home-grown men and wrrnen congreçation, the separatian of Church
lsr
and state.
The family was declared obsolete.
Thousands of Ukrainian priests, monks, nuns and laypeople were sent to
Siberia" tsuildings and lands wex'e confiscated" ln 1922 alone, B 100
priests and religious were executed.
Fn 1917 Fln-¡ssãa becar¡re Conamn"xnist.
Pacelli was seRt by Pius Xll ta get a Ccncordat with Rt¡ssia, with nc
success: Russia refused to give Rome the right to name bishops, *r any
direct access tc Russiarr Catholics. Rome tried clandestine clergy.
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1n1929, the propagation
cf reliEÊon was declared ë crime against the
state.By 1930, the government was eliminating Kulaks" 13 millior¡ were
shot or deported to SEbcria. ln Ukraine, T million starved on orders from
the Kremlin.
lr¡'t926, a wa;'of
ReligËom
wtth the R.epublican Governeaer':t erupËed åsl
NV!exÈco.
The CCIrninterr¡ wäs launehing popular fronts la seduce countries into
socialist revolr¡tiorr from the inside, wåth French supptrt ([-eon Blum's
government).
lr¡ ChËna as¡d Indocå'aåma, Conrmunism was buildång up strength
ån
'!936, a ternåbãe Cåvll vyan beËweem Gene¡'aã Framcç amú the Repubãåcam ãeft
tore up Spain. ln lhree years, one
miiËion people died. Both the
repr-lblican nations and the fa'scist states gave suppert to their specific
side with weãpons and rnen. The Republieans ån the first few months
destroyed over 2û00 churches and ffirassacred some 7û00 priests,
religious and serninarians. ln Novennber 1936, Gerrnany, ltaiy and Japan
strue k an anti-Communist pact. FræRco's Falangist enlisted the Church,
which they termed än essentiæl ingredient of Hispanidad, in their anti-
Bolshevik erusade. Most bishops ralËied to Franco's pærty and the
Vatican recognized hås nationalist government i¡: September 1937.
However, the Basques remained Republican and their priests were
murdered by Franco's men.
'
'
:
"
-t-
^-
!t is in this context that Pius Xl promuågated Divini Redempforls, five
days after
lt declared: 'Communism is
intrinsically perverse, and it is inadmlssible for anyone wishing to save
Christian civilization ta callaborate with if.'åts rejection of all forms of
socialism as narrowly secular echoes the Pope's attack of Nazism as
the worst sort af Paganísm. The Pcpe wanted åo make clear that he was
not taking politicai sides in the raging struggÊe between the twc
totalitarianisms on the rise. He was simply demonstrating that neither
ideology was compatibte with Christianity, and insiructing Catholics to
stay away from both. l-le did nat fail to add, Ên a Êong secÊion of Divini
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Redemptoris, that the exaggerated 'Liberalism' üf the demoträcies was
equalty unacceptable, founded as it was on individualism, exploitation of
the poor and rejection of authority. The central point of the encyclical
was that only a strong re-Christianization of society could save the world
from impending ehaos.
Abyssinian War
German ilvanEelical Church
Barmen Confession
Giolitti
Biennio Rosso
l-{índenburg
Bolshevik
Kulak
Catholic Action
Kulturkampf
Center Party
Niemoller's Confessional Church
Comintern
Night of the Long Knives
Concordat
'Non expedit'
Nuremberç Laws
Popular Front
Corporatism
Enabling Act
PPl, Partito Populare ltaliano
productivism
Falangist
Reichstag
Fascist
the Roman Question
Freemason
Sturzo (Don Luigi)
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A Righteous
Jgws
r{,rr*}3å
Gerctåle :
Pcpe Påus
XII and the
i}Avltr] G. I]A'-[N
ln recentyears, Eugenio Pacelli, who became Pope PiusXll in 1939, has
been the ãubject of considerable public criticism, and even vilification, for
his alleged failure to speak out against Hitler during the Holocaust. Pope
Pius' alieged "silence," in the face of the worst Nazi atrocities, has led
some of his harshest critics to accuse him of being a Nazi sympathizer or
an anti-Semite. ln 1999, the British journalist John Cornwell created an
international sensation with the publication of his best-selling attack on
Pius Xll, vilifying Eugenio Pacelli as Hitler's Pope'
The past couple of years have seen the publication of eight more new
books dealing with Pius Xll and the Holocaust. To be sure, Pius has had
both his defeñders and detractors. Four of these books, by the Catholic
scholars Ronald J. Rychlak, Pierre Blet, Margherita Marchione and Ralph
Mclnerny, have been written in defense of Pius, his life and legacy. They
have succeeded, in varying degrees, in effectively responding to the
allegations of Pius' critics. Those vilifying Pius, and defaming his memory,
howèver, have received the most media attention: Cornwell's Hitler's
Pope, Garry Wills' Papatsln and James Carroll's Constantine's Sword
have become huge best sellers, generating much public discussion and
debate. Susan Zucotti's unremitting attack on Pius, Under His Very
Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in ltaly, published by Yale
University Press, received heightened media attention as well'
For Jewish leaders of a previous generation, this harsh portrayal of Pope
Pius Xll, and the campaign of vilification against him, would have been a
source of profound sl'rock and sadness. From the end of World War ll until
at least five years after his death, Pope Pius enjoyed an enviable
reputation amongst Christians and Jews alike. At the end of the war, Pius
Xll was hailed aS "the inspired moral prophet of victory," ar'ìd "enjoyed
near-universal acclaim for aiding European JewS." Numerous Jewish
leaders, including Albert Einstein, lsraeli Prime Ministers Golda Meir and
Moshe Sharett, and Chief Rabbi lsaac Herzog, expressed their public
gratitude to Pius Xll, praising him as a "righteous gentile," who had saved
thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. ln his meticulously researcheci
and comprehensive 1967 book, Three Popes and the Jews, the lsraeli
historian and diplomat Pinchas Lapide, who had served as the lsraeli
Counsel General in Milan, and had spoken with many ltalian Jewish
Holocaust survivors who owed their life to Pius, provided the empirical
basis for their gratitude, concluding that Pius Xll "was instrumental in
saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from
certaiñ death at Nazi hands." To this day, the Lapide volume remains the
definitive work, by a Jewish scholar, on the subject.
The campaign of vilification against Pope Pius can be traced to the debut
in Berlin in February 1963 of a play, by a young, Protestant, left-wing West
German writer and playwright, Rolf Hochhuth. The Deputy, in which
Hochhuth depicts Pacelli as a Nazi collaborator, guilty of moral cowardice
and "silence" in the face of the'Nazi onslaught, is a scathing indictment of
Pope Pius Xll's alleged indifferences to the plight of European Jewry
during the Holocaust.
Hochhuth's play ignited a public controversy about Pius Xll that continues
this day. Despite the fact that lhe Deputy was a purely fictional and highly
polemical play, which offered little or no historical evidence for its
allegations against Pope Pius Xll, it was widely discussed and acclaimed.
lndéed, it inspired a new generation of revisionist journalists and scholars,
who were intent on discrediting the well-documented efforts of Pope Pius
Xll to save Jews during the Holocaust. Their denunciation of Pius received
widespread publicity with the commercial success of HÌtler's Pope, in which
John Cornwell denounced him aS "the most dangerous churchman in
modern history," without whom "Hitler might never have... been able to
press forward with the Holocaust." Although an unusually harsh and bitter
judgment, it was one with which Pius Xll's other recent detractors, such as
Wills and Zucotti, implicitly concur. Moreover, in their persistent efforts to
vilify Pius, and defame his memory, his detractors have largely dismissed
or completely ignored Pinchas Lapide's seminal and comprehensive study
that so conclusively documents the instrumental role played by Pope Pius
Xll in rescuing and sheltering Jews during the Holocaust.
The HåstorËcaE Record¡ Wl'nat PEus XII D¡d fon the Jews
Despite allegations and misrepresentations to the contrary, it can now be
documented conclusively that Pope Pius Xll was responsible for saving
hundreds of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. Although the
villainous "silence" of the Pope has been repeatedly alleged since the early
1g60's, there is much historical evidence to confirm that he was not silent,
that before and after he became Pope he spoke out against Hitler and that
he was almost universally recognized, especially by the Nazis themselves,
as an unrelenting opponent of the Nazi regime.
Pius Xll publicly and privately warned of the dangers of Nazism.
Throughout World War ll, he spoke out on behalf of Europe's Jews. When
Pius learned of the Nazi atrocities in Poland, he urged the bishops of
Europe to do all they could to save the Jews and other victims of Nazi
persecution. On January 19, 1940, atthe Pope's instruction, Vatican radio
and L'Os se¡yatore Romano revealed to the world "the dreadful cruelties of
uncivilized tyranny" that the Nazis were inflicting on Jewish and Catholic
Poles. The following week, the Jewish Advocate of Boston reported the
Vatican radio broadcast, praising its "outspoken denunciation of German
atrocities in Nazi [occupied] Poland, declaring they affronted the moral
conscience of mankind."
ln his 1940 Easter homily, Pius Xll condemned the Nazi bombardment of
defenseless citizens, aged and sick people, and innocent children. On
May 1 1, 1940, he publicly condemned the Nazi invasions of Belgium,
Holland, and Luxemburg and lamented "a world poisoned by lies and
disloyalty and wounded by excesses of violence." ln June 1942, Pius
spoke out against the mass deportation of Jews from Nazi-occupied
France, further instructing his Papal Nuncio in Paris to protest to Marshal
Henri Petain, Vichy France's Chief of State, against "the inhuman arrests
and deportations of Jews from the French occupied zone to Silesia and
parts of Russia."
The London Times of October 1, 1942, explicitly praises him for his
condemnation of Nazism and his public support for the Jewish victims of
Nazi terror. "A study of the words which Pope Pius Xll has addnessed
SinCe his aCCession," noted the TimeS, "leaves no room for dOubt. He
condemns the worship of force and its concrete manifestations in the
suppression of national liberties and in the persecution of the Jewish
race."
Pius Xll's Christmas addresses of 1941 and 1942, broadcast over Vatican
radio to millions throughout the world, also help to refute the fallacious
claim that Pope Pius was "silent." lndeed, as The New York Times
described Pius' 1941Christmas address in its editorial the following day, it
specifically applauded the Pope, as a "lonely" voice of public protest
against Hitler: "The voice of Pius Xll is a lonely voice in the silence and
darkness enveloping Europe this Christmas...ln calling for a 'real new
order' based on 'liberty, justice, and love'...the Pope put himself squarely
against Hitlerism. Recognizing that there is no road open to agreement
between belligerents'whose reciprocal war aims and programs seem to be
irreconcilable,' Pius Xll left no doubt that the Nazi aims are also
irreconcilable with his own conception of a Christian peace." The Pope's
Christmas message of 1941, as reported by The New York limes and
other newspapers, was understood at the time to be a clear condemnation
of Nazi attacks on Europe's Jews.
So, too, was the Pope's Christmas message of the following year. Pope
Pius Xll's widely-discussed Christmas message of December 24, 1942, in
which he expressed his passionate concern "for those hundreds of
thousands who, without any fault of their own, sometimes only by reason
of their nationality or race, are marked down for death or progressive
extinction," was widely understood to be a very public denunciation of the
Nazi extermination of the Jews. lndeed, the Nazis themselves interpreted
the Pope's famous speech of Christmas 1942 as a clear condemnation of
Nazism, and as a plea on behalf of Europe's Jews: "His [the Pope's]
speech is one long attack on everything we stand for... he is clearly
speaking on behalf of the Jews... he is virtually accusing the German
people of injustice toward the Jews, and makes himself the mouthpiece of
the Jewish war criminals."
ln his recent history of the modern papacy, Professor Eamon Duffy of
Magdalen College, Oxford University, substantiates the fact, ignored by
Pius' critics, that the Nazi leadership viewed the Pope's 1942 Christmas
message as an attack on Nazi Germany and as a defense of the Jews.
"Both Mussolini and Ambassador Ribbentrop were angered by this [the
Pope's December 24,1942] speech," notes Duffy, "and Germany
considered that the Pope had abandoned any pretence of neutrality. They
felt that Pius had unequivocally condemned Nazi action against the Jews."
Critics of Pius minimize the significance of the Pope's 1942 Christmas
message and fail to note (or analyze) the German reaction to the Pope's
address. To do so, as Pius' defenders have aptly noted, would destroy
their image of Pius as a "silent" Pope, and would demonstrate that the
Nazis were very much aware of, and angered by, the Pope's
condemnation of the Final Solution.
This awareness and danger on the part of the Nazis, moreover, had
potentially dire consequences for the safety and security of Pope Pius Xll
during the remaining years of the war. The Pope's condemnation of Nazi
actions against the Jews, led to considerable speculation at the time that
Hitler would seek revenge on the papacy, and attack the Vatican.
There was, to be sure, ample historical precedent for Pius Xll to have
feared for his safety and security, if not his very life, should the Nazis be
provoked to besiege the Vatican. As Rychlak has recently pointed out, the
possibility of German invasion of Vatican City was very real: Napoleon had
besieged the Vatican in 1809, capturing Pius Vll at bayonet point and
forcibly removing him from Rome. Pope Pius lX fled Rome for his life
following the assassination of his chancellor, and Leo Xlll was also driven
into temporary exile during the late nineteenth century.
ln fact, Hitler spoke publicly of wanting to enter the Vatican and "pack up
that whole whoring rabble." lt has long been known that at one point Hitler
planned to kidnap the Pope and imprison him. And, as several scholars
have noted, Pius Xll knew that the Nazis had a plan to kidnap him. ln
addition to minutes from a meeting on July 26,1943, in which Hitler openly
discussed invading the Vatican, Ernst von Weizsacker, the German
Ambassador to the Vatican, has written that he heard of Hitler's plan to
kidnap Pius Xll, and that he regularly warned the Pope and Vatican
officials against provoking Berlin. So, too, the Nazi Ambassador to ltaly,
Rudolf Rahn, has described the kidnappinE plot and attempts by Rahn and
other Nazi diplomats to prevent it.
ln critically assessing what actions Pius Xll might have taken, but did not
take, on behalf of the Jews of Europe, his defenders and critics alike point
to his "failure" to excommunicate Hitler and other Nazi party leaders.
lndeed, many of the Pope's "defenders," including this writer, wish (and
believe) that papal excommunication should have at least been attempted.
Such sentiments notwithstanding, there is abundant evidence to suggest
that the excommunication of Hitler would have been a purely symbolic
gesture, and would not have accomplished what its proponents hoped for.
Hitler, Himmler and other Nazi leaders were, to be sure, baptized Catholics
who were never excommunicated. Had Pius Xll excommunicated them,
his critics claim, such an act might have prevented the Holocaust, or
significantly diminished it. On the contrary. There is much evidence to
suggest that a formal order of excommunication might very welljust have
achieved the opposite.
When Don Luigi Sturzo, the founder of the Christian Democratic movement
in wartime ltaly, was asked by Leon Kubovny, an official of the World
Jewish Congress during the Holocaust era, why the Vatican did not
excommunicate Hitler, he recalled the cases of Napoleon and Queen
Elizabeth I of England, "the last time a nominal excommunication was
pronounced against a head of state." Pointing out that neither of them had
"changed their policy after excommunication," he feared, Sturzo wrote
Kubovny, "that in response to a threat of excommunication," Hitler would
have even killed more Jews than he had. Writers and scholars familiar
with Hitler's psychology share Sturzo's fear, believing that any provocation
by the Pope, such as an order for excommunication, "would have resulted
in violent retaliation, the loss of many more Jewish lives, especially those
then under the protection of the Church, and an intensification of the
persecution of Gatholics." This is, I believe, a compelling argument that
cannot be ignored. lt is one, moreover, that is supported by the testimony
of Jewish Holocaust survivors, such as Marcus Melchior, the former Chief
Rabbi of Denmark, who attests that "if the Pope had spoken out, Hitler
would probably have massacred more than six million Jews and perhaps
ten times ten million Catholics,. if he had the power to do so."
His "failure" to excommunicate Hitler, Pius Xll's critics assert, is only one
instance of his larger failure to make sufficiently forceful denunciations of
the Nazis. The critics who have accused Pius Xll of "silence" have claimed
that in other ways, also, he failed to forcefully condemn the Nazi regime.
Had he done so, they argue, it might have reduced, or even halted the
anti-Jewish atrocities. Had he spoken out more forcefully and publicly,
they maintain, more Jewish lives would have been spared. Their
contention, however, "fails to consider the brutal realities in the wake of
Nazism, as well as the retaliatory consequences sure to follow any
condemnatory action." More stringent protests, or denunciations, on the
part of the Vatican might quite possibly have backfired.
An example frequently cited by defenders of the Vatican is the public
protest of Dutch bishops in July 1942 against the deportation of Dutch
Jews from the Netherlands. When Pius Xll first learned of the Nazi
atrocities in Poland, he urged the Catholic bishops of Europe to do all they
could to save the Jews and other victims of Nazi persecution. The bishops
of Holland distributed a pastoral letter that was read in every Catholic
Church in the country, denouncing "the unmerciful and unjust treatment
meted out to Jews by those in power in our country." ln no other Nazioccupied country did local Catholic bishops more furiously resist Nazism
which
than in Holland. But, their well-intentioned pastoral letter
backfired.
explicitly declared that they were inspired by Pope Pius Xll
As Pinchas Lapide notes: "Thq saddest and most thought-provoking
conclusion is that whilst the Catholic clergy in Holland protested more
loudly, expressly and frequently against Jewish persecutions than the
religious hierarchy of any other Nazi-occupied country, more Jews
were deported from Holland to
some 1 10,000 or 79 percent of the total
death camps." The protest of the Dutch bishops thus provoked the most
and the
savage of Nazi reprisals: The vast majority of Holland's Jews
highest percentages of Jews of any Nazi-occupied nation in Western
were deported and killed.
Europe
With the advantage of hindsight, Pius Xll's revisionist critics have been
judging the Pope's "silence" without considering the likely consequences of
his having "spoken out" more loudly and explicitly. These critics do not
know (or have chosen to ignore the fact) that the Pope had been strongly
advised by Jewish leaders and by Catholic bishops in Nazi-occupied
countries not to protest publicly against the Nazi atrocities. When the
bishop of Munster wanted to sþeak out against the persecution of the Jews
in Germany, the Jewish leaders of his diocese begged him not to because
it would result in even greater persecution for them. Pinchas Lapide
quotes an ltalian Jew who, with the Vatican's help, managed to escape the
Nazi deportation of Rome's Jews in October 1943, as stating unequivocally
twenty years later: "none of us wanted the Pope to speak out openly. We
were all fugitives and we did not want to be pointed out as such. The
Gestapo would have only increased and intensified its inquisition...it was
much better the Pope kept silent. We all felt the same, and today we still
believe that." Bishop Jean Bernard of Luxembourg, an inmate of Dachau
from February 1941 to August 1942, notified the Vatican that "whenever
-
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-
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-
protests were made, treatment of prisoners worsened immediately.
There is much evidence to suEgest that had Pius Xll more vigorously
opposed or denounced Hitler's policies, there would have been serious
and devastating retaliation. Undoubtedly, a stronger public condemnation
of the Final Solution by the Pope would have provoked Nazi reprisals
against Catholic clergy in Nazi-occupied countries and in Germany itself.
Undoubtedly, also, such a public condemnation by the Pope would have
severely jeopardized the lives of the thousands of Jews hidden in the
Vatican, in Rome's many churches, convents and monasteries, and in
numerous Catholic churches and other religious institutions throughout
Italy, along with the lives of their Catholic protectors who were trying to
save them. Many ltalian Jewish Holocaust survivors have agreed with
Michael Tagliacozzo. a Roman Jew hidden for several months at the
Seminario Romano, the pontifical seminary, who approved of the papal
policy that enabled him and many others to survive. A clearer public
denunciation of the Nazis, they believe, would also have jeopardized the
lives of the priests and Catholic laity who were sheltering and protecting
them. lndeed, as even Susan Zucotti in her recent critique of Pius Xll
admits, "the pope's inclination to silence might well have been influenced
by a concern for Jews in hiding and for their Catholic protectors."
To the very end, Pope Pius Xll believed that a public denunciation of the
Holocaust would have made matters worse by further enraging the Nazis
and provoking even more violent reprisals against Europe's Jews, and
against tens of thousands of Catholics as well. ln retrospect, historians
have come to appreciate this tactical caution on the part of Pius Xll and the
Holy See. His "silerìce," they recognize, was an effective strategic
approach to protecting more Jews from deportation to the Nazi death
camps. A more explicit and forceful papal denunciation of Nazism might
have invited even more Nazi reprisals and made things even worse for the
Jews of Nazi occupied Europe. One might ask, of course, what might
have been worse than the mass murder of six million Jews? The answer
is abundantly and horrifically clear: The slaughter of hundreds of
thousands more.
Pinchas Lapide documents conclusively the extraordinary relief and rescue
efforts conducted by Pius Xll and his diplomats during the Holocaust.
Through his country-by-country analysis of Papal efforts to rescue
European Jews throughout Nazi Europe, Lapide demonstrates, beyond
any reasonable doubt, that "the Catholic Church saved more Jewish lives
during the war than all other churches, religious institutions and rescue
organizations put together. "
While approximately 80 percent of European Jews perished during World
War ll, 80 percent of ltaly's 40,000 Jews were saved. The Nazi
deportations of ltaly's Jews began in October 1943, after the German army
occupied Rome and entrusted internal security matters to the S.S. On
October 16, more than a thousand of the city's Jews were rounded up and
deported to Auschwitz, where they were murdered a week later. From
October 1943 until the Allied capture of the city in June 1944, the
deportations continued, with 2,091 Roman Jews eventually being
exterminated in Nazi death camps.
During the months that Rome was under German occupation, Pius Xll,
who secretly instructed ltaly's Catholic clergy "to save human lives by all
means," played an especially significant role in saving thousands of ltalian
Jews from deportation to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps.
Beginning in October 1943, Pope Pius asked the churches and convents
throughout ltaly to shelter Jews. As a result, although ltalian dictator
Benito Mussolini and the Fascists who remained loyal to him yielded to
Hitler's demand that ltaly's Jews be deported, in churches, monasteries
and private homes throughout the country ltalian Catholics defied
Mussolini's orders and protected thousands of Jews until the Allied armies
arrived. Although their lives were endangered by helping to save Jews,
Italian Catholic Church leaders, from Cardinals to parish priests, hid Jews
from the Nazis. ln Rome, 155 convents and monasteries sheltered some
5,000 Jews throughout the German occupation. No less than 3,000 Jews
found refuge at one time at the Pope's summer residence at Castel
Gandolfo, and thus, through Pius' personal intervention, escaped
deportation to German death camps. Sixty Jews lived for nine months at
the Jesuit Gregorian University, and many were sheltered in the cellar of
the Pontifical Bible lnstitute. Pope Pius himself granted sanctuary within
the walls of the Vatican in Rome to hundreds of homeless Jews. Following
Pope Pius' direct instructions, individual ltalian priests and monks,
cardinals and bishops, were instrumental in saving hundreds of Jewish
lives.
In Tntbute to
XII;
Filr,¡s
Praise From the JewEsh Coallmunity
During his lifetime, and for several years after his death in 1958, Pope Pius
Xll was widely praised as having been a true friend of the Jewish people,
who saved hundreds of thousands of Jewish lives during the Holocaust.
As early as December of 1940, in an article published in Time magazine,
the renowned Nobel Prize winning physicist Albert Einstein, himself a
Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, paid tribute to the moral "courage" of
Pope Pius and the Catholic Church in opposing "the Hitlerian onslaught"
on liberty:
Being a lover of freedom, when the Nazi revolution came in Germany, I
looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always
boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities
immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the
newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed
their love of freedom: but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few
short weeks. Only the Catholic Church stood squarely across the path of
Hitler's campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any special
interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and
admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and
persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced
thus to confess that what I once despised, I now praise unreservedly.
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, tributes to Pope Pius came from several
other Jewish leaders who praised him for his role in saving Jews during the
war. ln 1943, Chaim Weizmann, who would become lsrael's first
president, wrote that "the Holy See is lending its powerful help wherever it
can, to mitigate the fate of my persecuted co-religionists." Moshe Sharett,
who would become lsrael's first Foreign Minister and second Prime
Minister, reinforced these feelings of gratitude when he met with Pius in
the closing days of World War'll: "l told him [the Pope] that my first duty
was to thank him, and through him the Catholic Church, on behalf of the
Jewish public for all they had done in the various countries to rescue
Jews...We are deeply grateful to the Catholic Church." ln 1945, Rabbi
lsaac Herzog, the Chief Rabbi of lsrael, sent a message to Msgr. Angelo
Roncalli (the future Pope John XXlll), expressing his gratitude for the
actions taken by Pope Pius Xll on behalf of the Jewish people. "The
people of lsrael," wrote Rabbi Herzog, "will never forget what His Holiness
and his illustrious delegates, inspired by the eternal principles of religion,
which form the foundation of true civilization, are doing for our unfortunate
brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of our history, which is living
proof of Divine Providence in this world." In September 1945, Dr. Leon
Kubowitzky, the Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress,
personally thanked the Pope in Rome for his interventions on behalf of
Jews, and the World Jewish Congress donated $20,000 to Vatican
charities "in recognition of the work of the Holy See in rescuing Jews from
Fascist and Nazi persecutions." Dr. Raffael Cantoni, head of the ltalian
Jewish community's wartime Jewish Assistance Committee, who would
subsequently become the President of the Union of ltalian Jewish
Communities, similarly expressed his gratitude to the Vatican, stating that
"six million of my co-religionists have been murdered by the Nazis, but
there could have been many more victims had it not been for the
efficacious intervention of Pius Xll." On April 5, 1946, his Union of ltalian
Jewish Communities, meeting for the first time after the War, sent an
official message of thanks to Pope Pius Xll.
The delegates of the Congress of the ltalian Jewish Communities, held in
Rome for the first time after the Liberation, feel that it is imperative to
extend reverent homage to Your Holiness, and to express the most
profound gratitude that animates all Jews for your fraternal humanity
toward them during the years of persecution when their lives were
endangered by Nazi-Fascist barbarism. Many times priests suffered
imprisonment and were sent to concentration camps, and offered their
lives to assist Jews in every way. This demonstration of goodness and
charity that still animates the just, has served to lessen the shame and
torture and sadness that afflicted millions of human beings.
Many other Jewish tributes to Pius came in the years just proceeding, and
in the immediate aftermath, of the Pontiffs death. ln 1955, when ltaly
celebrated the tenth anniversary of its liberation, the Union of ltalian
Jewish Communities proclaimed April 17 as a "Day of Gratitude" for the
Pope's wartime assistance in defying the Nazis. Dozens of ltalian
Catholics, including several priests and nuns, were awarded gold medals
"for their outstanding rescue work during the Nazi terror."
A few weeks later, on May 26,1955, the lsraeli Philharmonic Orchestra
flew to Rome to give a special performance of Beethoven's Seventh
Symphony, at the Vatican's Consistory Hall, to express the State of lsrael's
enduring gratitude for the help that the Pope and the Catholic Church had
given to the Jewish people persecuted by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
That the lsraeli Philharmonic Orchestra so joined the rest of the Jewish
world in warmly honoring the achievements and legacy of Pope Pius Xll is
of more than passing significance. As a matter of state policy, the lsraeli
Philharmonic has never played the music of the nineteenth century
composer Richard Wagner because of Wagner's well-known reputation as
an anti-Semite and as Hitler's "favorite composer," and as one of the
cultural patron saints of the Third Reich, whose music was played at Nazi
party functions and ceremonies. Despite requests from music lovers and
specialísts, the official state ban on the lsraeli Philharmonic's playing
Wagner's music has never been lifted. During the 1950's and 1960's,
especially, a significant sector of the lsraeli public, hundreds of thousands
of whom were survivors of the Nazi concentration and death camps, still
viewed his music, and even his name, as a symbol of the Hitler regime.
That being the case, it is inconceivable that the lsraeli government would
have paid the travel expenses for the entire Philharmonic to travel to Rome
for a special concert to pay tribute to a church leader who was considered
to have been "Hitler's Pope," On the contrary: The lsraeli Philharmonic's
historic and unprecedented visit to Rome to perform for Pius Xll at the
Vatican was a unique Jewish iommunal gesture of collective recognition
and gratitude to a great world leader and friend of the Jewish people for his
instrumental role in saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of Jews.
On the day of Pius Xll's death in 1958, Golda Meir, lsrael's Foreign
Minister, cabled the following message of condolence to the Vatican: "We
share in the grief of humanity...When fearful martyrdom came to our
people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for
the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on
the great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great
servant of peace." Before beginning a concert of the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Leonard Bernstein called for a minute
of silence "for the passing of a very great man, Pope Pius Xll."
Similar sentiments were expressed in the many tributes and eulogies for
Pius by numerous rabbis and Jewish communal leaders, as well as by
most of the lsraeli press, several of whose readers suggested in open
letters that a "Pope Pius Xll Forest" be planted in the hills of Judea "in
order to perpetuate fittingly the humane services rendered by the late
pontiff to European Jewry." During and for close to two decades after
World War ll, Jewish praise and gratitude for Pius Xll's efforts on behalf of
European Jewry were virtually unanimous. lndeed, as Pinchas Lapide has
so aptly stated: "No Pope in history has been thanked more heartily by
Jews." Because of Pius Xll's exemplary humanity toward European Jewry,
no other Pope has earned such gratitude from the Jewish people.
PIus
XII; A R.Ëghteous Gentile, Not tlitler's Fope
I believe that a new, Jewish historical account of Pope Pius Xll and the
Holocaust
a comprehensive, yet critical scholarly "defense" of what Pius
needs to be written. Such a true account of what Pius
did for the Jews
Xll really did for the Jews would arrive, I believe, at exactly the opposite of
Cornwell's conclusion: Pius Xll was not Hitler's pope, but the closest Jews
and at the moment when it
had come to having a papal supporter
mattered most.
Such a new Jewish historical evaluation and "defense" of Pius, needs to be
his
based on how Pius's Jewish contemporaries viewed his efforts
during his lifetime, and how Jewish
accomplishments and failures alike
Holocaust survivors have evaluated (and reevaluated) his life and legacy in
the decades since. Such a book must incorporate the first hand testimony
of Jewish leaders in lsrael, Europe and America, and of l-lolocaust
survivors and former chaplains who served in Nazi occupied Europe,
which bear eloquent witness to the heroic and often forgotten role played
by Pius Xll as a "righteous gentile," who was responsible for sheltering and
rescuing hundreds of thousands of Jews.
ln recent decades, new oral history centers have been established, to
record and preserve the oral histories and personal testimonies of Jewish
Holocaust survivors and their Catholic rescuers. As a result, an impressive
body of new oral history interviews, with Jewish Holocaust survivors and
military chaplains, Catholic clergy and laity, in ltaly and other countries of
Nazi occupied Europe, have been conducted and transcribed. These
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prov¡de a new basis for understanding Pius Xll's role in the Holocaust, and
his relationship to ltaly's Jews. An invaluable archival resource, these
provide the basis for the new Jewish understanding of Pius Xll and the
Holocaust that cries out to be written.
The new and existing oral history testimony of Jewish leaders in lsrael,
Europe, and America, as well as that of Jewish chaplains and of numerous
Jewish Holocaust survivors, bear elegant witness to the heroic and often
forgotten role played by Pope Pius Xll in sheltering and rescuing hundreds
of thousands of Jews. lt is hard to imagine that so many of the world's
greatest Jewish leaders, on several continents, were all misguided or
mistaken in praising the Pope's wartime conduct. Their enduring gratitude,
as well as that of a generation of Holocaust survivors, to Pius Xll was
genuine and profound, and bespoke their sincere belief that he was one of
the world's truly "righteous gentiles."
The Talmud, the great sixth century compendium of Jewish religious law
and ethics, teaches Jews that "whosoever preserves one life, it is
accounted to him by Scripture as if he had preserved a whole world."
More so than most other twentieth century leaders, Pius Xll effectively
fulfilled this Talmudic dictum when the fate of European Jewry was at
stake. Pope Pius Xll's legacy as a "righteous gentile," who rescued so
many Jews from Hitler's death camps cannot and should not be forgotten.
Nor should the fact that the Jewish community, and so many of its leaders,
praised the Pope's efforts during and after the Holocaust, and promised
never to forget.
These points are especially significant in evaluating Pope Pius Xll's
enduring legacy for twentieth, and twenty-first, century Jews. lt needs to
be remembered, as noted earlier, that no other Pope in history has been
so universally praised by Jews.. So, too, the compelling reason for this
unprecedented Jewish praise for, and gratitude to, a Pope needs to be
better remembered than it has been in recent years: Today, more than fifty
years after the Holocaust, it needs to be more widely recognized and
appreciated that Pius Xll was indeed a very "righteous gentile," a true
friend of the Jewish people, who saved more Jewish lives than any other
person, including Raoul Wallenberg and Oskar Schindler. A new
authentically Jewish history of Pope Pius Xll and the Holocaust,
emphasizing his historic role and accomplishments as a "righteous
gentile," may help to bring some long-overdue recognition to his too little
known and appreciated legacy as one of the century's great friends of the
Jewish people.
ACKNOW¡-EDGEFT,IEhST
Rabbi David G. Dalin. "A Righteous Gentile: Pope Pius Xll and the Jews".
This article reprinted with permission from Rabbi Davd G. Dalin.x
THE AUTI{OR
Rabbi David G. Dalin, a widely-published scholar of American Judaism and
the history of Christian-Jewish Relations, is the author or co-author of five
nd State in
books, including
published by the University of Notre Dame Press in 1997 and, most
His article,
Sfates a
recently,
"Pius Xll and the Jews," was published in the February 26,2001 issue of
the Weekty Standard, and was reprinted in the August-September issue of
tnside the Vatican, published in Rome. Rabbi Dalin is a member of the
Editorial Advisory Board of the journal First Things, and a member of the
Board of Governors of Sacred Heart University's Center for Christian
Jewish understanding. He is now writing a new book, tentatively entitled:
Two Popes and the Jews: Pius Xll and John Paul ll.
Copyright O 2003 Rabbi David G. Dalin
Cahiers du Temoignage Chretien
'll/e are at the eye of the storm. It has reveøled to mnny of us the cost of being a
Christíøn. One only knows well what one loves and mnrtyrdomß alwøys the solídproof
and powerful test of love. ' Pierre Chaillet, S.J.
InNovember 1941, Pierre Chaillet S.J. with a handful of lay people launched a
clandestine publication to counter Nazi propaganda. Eighty three years old Maréchal
Pétain, who had negotiated the armistice had become the emergency leader of the nation.
He was appealing to'traditional values'(Work, Family, Fatherland) in an attempt to
launch a ' national revolution which would build, a'new order' on the demise of the
Socialist state, an order inspired by 'Christian principles': peace, reconciliation, rebuilding of a strong nation. Pleased with its potential new role in politics after a century
of struggle with a liberal state, the French Catholic hierarchy largely collaborated with his
Vichy regime. In July 1941, the Assembly of Cardinals and Archbishops solemnly
promised Pétain its 'sincere loyalty'. They called for 'docility and apositive attitude' from
the population. They warned against'dissidence' and'rebellion'.
The French needed to hear a clear Christian voice, daring to tell the truth about where
true duty lay. For three years, with the cooperation of Protestants, the Témoignage
Chrétien staffrisked their lives clandestinely printing and disseminating one of the few
sources of truth countering Nazi propaganda. They pinpointed the three major spiritual
evils of the time: racism, the religion ofthe supennan, and the idolization of power and
violence.
The Jesuit theologians who founded Témoigmqe Chrétien had been steeped in the
doctrinal and pastoral renewal of the 20's and 30's. (See Henri de Lubac, Catholicisrn the
social aspects of dogma) They were ready to replace the scholastic and juridical
dogmatism which had dominated the turn of the century by a dynamic response to the
time, involving both clerics andlay people. Their theology was four-pronged:
l. Incarnational: demanding involvement in the affairs of this world.
2. Based on a return to the sources, both biblical and patristic: in other words, on access
to Christianity in gestation.
3. Intensely aware ofthe inextricably Jewish roots of Christianity
4. Apostolic: opposed to individualistic spirituality, and emphasiztng each person's
responsibility - as member ofthe Mystical Body - to transmit the life of Christ to all.
Their project was'spiritual resistance'to the new ideology. It called for a solid doctrinal
foundation, and concrete information - 'authentic facts and documents' - as well as for the
establishment of a network of support for the persecuted.
Témoignage Chrétien was one of the first Catholic movements to argue from the concept
of 'human rights', a term usually taboo in Catholic circles because it had been so closely
associated with the anti-Christian philosophy of the French Revolution and of the 'manGod'. The Temoignage Chretien staffwas not qualified to speak for the Church, and
never asked for a'nihil obstat'since they knew they would not have obtained it. But they
obeyed their highly trained Catholic conscience, putting in practice the motto of Catholic
Action: 'See, Judge, Act.' The hierarchy often distanced itself from their stand, calling
them'theologians without a mandate'. Yet, their activities eventually gave respectability
to the new golden rule: the primacy of conscience, individual responsibility in opposition
1
to mere docility, passivity and discipline. Theirs was a necessary witness to Catholic
spiritual power. It inspired many to take witnessing to Christ to its logical conclusion:
martyrdom.
The following Notebook' is the first of 13, published clandestinely from l94l and 1944,
and distributed widely through France. They intended to 'bring oxygen to consciences',
and to counteract the silence and collaboration of much ofthe hierarchy. They denounced
nazineo-paganism and testified to the true faith. At the time this notebook was published,
a'crusade'against Bolshevic Russia had just been launched, and the LVF (Legion of
French Volunteers) had just been created, to go fight in Russia by the side of the
Germans. Two of the major Catholic publications - Temps Nouveau and, Esprit had been
suppressed in August. 5000 copies ofNotebook One were distributed. Its author, Father
Fessard (1897-1978) was a famous theologian, who wrote for the Jesuit Etudes.Itwas
printed by a socialist printer in Lyon, who had already joinedthe Résistance..
Notebook I: November l94l
France, beware, lest Jtou lose your souh
Père Gaston Fessard, S.J.
'Our world is, without a doubt, a prison of the spirit even more than a prison of the body,
whîch it is as well. Respectfor Truth demands that we not reject what is true; it is both
our right and our duty to be doubly prudent and suspicious when those who speak to us
make it impossible to hear any other voice than theirs.'
'Who
thus alerts us? The Voice of the Vatican, to which you should listen every evening at
7 PM, on48.47.1 'Sons of light that they are, Christians must know the truth and must
witness to it. Their realm of action is that of God's kingdom andjustice. Thereforen
neither opportunism nor fear can dispense themfrom opposing their witness to the
present caricature ofjustice, of truth, and alas of honor.'
The Frenchmen who bring you these notebooks are not taking 'political stands' for or
against anything. They have only one goal, to protect your conscience from asphyxiation.
They bring you facts that have been thoroughly checked and authentic documentation, re
reminders of doctrinal directives. To echo and ampliff their impact, they depend on you,
on your prudence and on your courage.
...'A whole people is in the process of losing its soul'; thus spoke a German prelate,
describing his country's predicament as the Nazi tide was rising. A year ago, France was
submerged in turn. She lost not merely her political but also her spiritual freedon¡ even
though she thought it had been salvaged by an 'honorable' armistice... But Germany is
not longer imperial Germany; it is Hitler's Germany. He is not satisfied with enslaving
the body of nations, he also wishes to domesticate their souls.... For the past year,
besides political manipulations, underhanded spiritual activity has been unleashed,
intended to make us abandon these Christian values which are our common heritage,
beneath all surface divisions. The ultimate goal of this activity is the enslavement of
France's very soul.
1
The Vatican Radio, created in 193 1, used to broadcast in numerous languages. The person in charge of
French language broadcasts, Father Mistiaen, was passionately anti-Nazi. Though jammed by Vicþ, they
were understood by those who heard them as expressing official Vatican policy.
2
These notebooks will limit their range to this spiritual dimension of the present situation;
their intent is to alert all Frenchmen who still care about human and Christian values
1. to the fundamentally anti-Christian nature of the Nazi mystique
2. to the underhanded methods of penetration and persecution developed by Hitler's
3.
I.
propaganda machine.
to the way these methods are applied in France and to their present success.
National socialism is an anti-Christian mystique
No Catholic remains unaware that bolshevism intends to eliminate religion through
violent persecution. M*y, however are ignorant ofthe facttlntNational Socialism is
also radically opposed to Christianity and that wherever it is in power, it unleashes a
persecution which may seem outwardly less violent, but is in fact more dangerous yet and
more fundamental than communist persecution. This persecution is
1. afact, a widespread reality
2. the necessary corìsequence of the very doctrine ofNational Socialism
3. both this fact and this necessary outcome have been recognized by the Church, which
explains why Nazism was condemned by the encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge. (Pius
)fl, March 14,1937)
1.
The Facts
... In Poland, persecution was unleashed immediately after the invasion and has been
unabashedly violent because the Nazis did not fear bad press and because, in their eyes,
the population did not deserve any respect. (See examples and statistics in Lebreton,
'German occupation in Poland; a struggle against a people and its faith.' Etudes, June
1940)
In Austria, all Catholic associations, especially youth movements were suppressed. So
were most faculties of theology and half of the seminaries, plus numerous convents
whose members were dispersed...
In Germany itself, where the Nazis must be more careful, persecution began as Hitler
took power and has intensified since the war. The churches may be open and in
appearance freely visited, but the whole machinery of the state is locking them in a
vacuum intended to asphyxiate all life from them .
[Here follows a series of references.]
In March 1941, Radio Vatican broadcast the following details:
- Numerous Catholic institutions have been closed down...
- Recruiting is becoming extremely difficult. All young people desirous to join a
religious order must be oriented instead by the Ministry of Labor to a position at the
service of the state.
- Religious are expelled from their requisitioned convents within hours and without
financial assistance.
- It is proposed to push baptism back to the age of 20...
3
Rosenberg, author of The Myth ofthe )O(th Century (the myth of blood and race) is
to be the only spiritual influence on German youth...Priests are denounced right and
left for lack of civic sense..
Functionaries are often demoted if accused of being faithful members ofthe Church
of Rome...sacramental practice and church going can have serious consequences...
parish bulletins are the only thing left of the Catholic press, and even they are accused
of being inadequately supportive of the regime...'
Nazi propaganda calls such persecution a'momentary necessity', given the excesses of
'political Catholicism'. Hitlerisn¡ they say, is religiously neutral, even supportive of
religion... Liberty will return as soon as Hitler's political ends are achieved.
Those are pure lies and false promises! The truth is this:
1. National Socialism is not primarily a political regime, but aWeltanschauung, a vision
ofthe world which is as totalitarian and intolerant as any religion, because it is
grounded in a mystique.
2. This fundamentally anti-Christian mystique is rooted in racisn¡ which is an integral
part ofNazi doctrine.
3. Hitler's political goals are nothing less than the domination ofthe world by force, and
by the diffi.lsion of the 'world vision'ofNational socialism. There is no possible
conciliation or sharing of influence between Christianity and Nazism: either one or
the two must be eliminated.
A. National- Socialism
must impose itself through'spiritual terrorism'
lHere follows q series of quotations
from Mein Kampf. like
the
followingl
"World visions are intolerant by nature, they cannot be content with playing the role of
party among others. Whether you regret it or not, you must admit today that the birth of
Christianity in the midst of thefreedom which reigned in antiquity was thefirst outbreak
of spiritual terrorism; ít ís an undeniablefact. Ever sínce that date, the world has been
dominated by the inescapable lcrw of imposition byþrce. Only imposition byforce can
destroy imposition by force, just as teruor alone can bring down terror.'
q
[Then, quotatíonsfrom the Nuremberg congress of 1935J
" Being a philosophical idaq, Nqtional Spcialism hqs to bç intolerant, unless it wishes
to sacrifice itself: It has to dgfçnd'ànd impose its cotrrect world view in all
circumstançgs.t'
B. Rosenberg has rationalizedthis mystique nThe Myth of the Wth Century:
He has grounded it in racism
I Herefollows a long analysis of Rosenberg's theory silWmed up in thefollowing
paragraphJ:
4
'All culture is the fruit of the creative work of Nordic or Aryan races. All decadence
originates, by contrast, with the dominance of oriental rsces, and the mixing of their
blood with that of Nordic peoples. Germans being the only Aryan kernel remaining pure,
they must become conscious again of their racíal value, and of their resulting cultural
mission: to regenerate Europe through the cult of the race.
This religion of race negates many principles essential to Christianity:
- First of all, that of the dignity of every individual or person; and that ofthe oneness of
all humanity as required by Christian universalism...'Individualism and universalism..
are metaphysics of decadence' (Rosenberg, p.539)
- Secondly, that of objective truth and objective law, on which true and'false, just and
unjust' are based. ...'Honor, national honor, is for us the beginning and end of all thought
and action. It cannot accept beyond itself any other center of gravity of equal worth,
whatever it might be: neither Christian love, norfree-mason humanitarianism, nor
Roman philosophy.'...
Hence the classic statement ofFrank, the Führer of German jurists: 'Right and just means
what is useful to the German people; unjust means whatever is harmful to it'...
Hence, also, the family can have no other function than to serve the race; women should
have no other ideal than to protect racialpurity....
As to Christianity, we must keep whatever in it exalts life, strength, honor and freedom:
that is, 'positive Christianity'; but we must eliminate what is contrary to it: humility
ascesis, acceptation of death and pain, love and grace. All that makes up 'negative
christianity', which the churches inherited from Judaism through st. paul...
'Alongwith Christîanity, another spiritual value inJìltrated the world qnd demanded
center stage: a sense of humility, compossion, submissiveness, oscesis. Today, any
sincere German can clearly see that with such a doctrine of love, embracing equally all
the world 's creotures, a tenible blow had been struck against the soul of Nordic Europe:
Christianity does not understand the concept of honor'. (Rosenberg, Lebensrecht. nicht
Formalrecht. Deutsches Recht. 1934, p.75) ...
C. In Mein Kampf, Hitler, relying on these racist principles, has defined by what
method they must triumph, and what he and his people want to achieve.
His method is persecutior¡ spiritual terrorism by any and every means, including violence
and lies. ...'Any attempt to/ìght an ethical system by materialforce mustfail, unless the
fight talrcs theform of a strugglefor a new spiritual stand. Only within the battle between
two philosophical stands can brute force, unleashed pítilessly and with obstinacy, flip the
final outcome onto the sid? of the party it supports. (Hitler, Mein Kampf. p.171)...
His project is the dprqiqqtipn oftne world, and the enslavement of all peoples to the
service of the German nation, predestined by its racialpurity to be the master race.
3.
The Church's response to National Socialism
In his encyclical, Mit Brennender Sorge (March 14, 1937) pope Pius XI has radically
condemned all the spiritual principles ofNazism.
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The fact thatthe Fuhrer invokes God and his providence at the conclusion of all his
speeches should not blind one to his blasphemous use ofthese words:
'V[lhoever divinizes race, or the people, or the state, or a political party, or any other
fundamental value of the human community, and renders them an idolatrous worship,
upsets and twists the order of creation ordained by God. Such a person isfarfrom true
faith in God, andfrom ø lifestyle in accordance with such afaith'.
Anti-Semitism perverts Christianity:
'Demanding that one banish biblical history and the wisdom of the Old Testamentfrom
the Church snd the school blasphemes God's name. It blasphemes the plan of the
Almightyfor our salvation; it erects a narrow human way of thinking as judge of the
divine projectfor history. Such a person deniesfoith in the true Christ who came in the
flesh, that Christ who received his human naturefrom the people who eventually
crucified him. Such a person understands nothing about the universal drama of the Son
of God, who opposed to the sacrilege of His execution the divine priestly action of His
redemptive death, and thus gave the Old Covenant its accomplishment, conclusion and
crowning in a New Covenant.
The Pope concludes by calling for the generosity and courage necessary to fight
persecution:
'As often before in the history of the Church, this era is the prelude of a new growth and
interior purification, but at this condition: that the fqithful be proud enough to confess
theirfaith in Christ, generous enough whenfaced with suffiring to oppose material
oppression of the Church with the intrepidity of deepfaith, the unshaknble hope of
eternity, the irresistible power of active charity.
II. Persecution Nazi-style
Bolshevik persecution is simple, brutal and evident to the eye. Persecution Nazi-style is
turderhanded, sneaky and perfidious. The Nazis will not flinch at murder, but they aim
first at perverting souls before eliminating bodies. France is presently the object of such
persecution; it is vital that we study how it has worked in Germany and Austria if we
wish to recognize it at work in our own country.
It can be analyzed, into three steps:
- First, seducing: by proposing a common goal, highly equivocal but superficially
respectable looking.
- Then compromisittg by luring to common action towards this seemingly respectable
common goal.
- Finally perverting those wþo sþeepishly let themselves be taken in, and eliminating
whoever resists courageousf y.
As soon as the evil of tho ¡pal goal towards which one is cooperating becomes evident,
blackmail and terror are used to capitalize on cowardice, to silence all efforts to point out
the ambiguity of the conlmon project, and to enforce continued collaboration. This way,
the partner is soon ng lpqger merely compromised, but also perverted. At first the newly
seduced ally was hopest, now he becomes transformed fiom collaborator to accomplice.
He links himsplf to the common crime by his participation. If his honesty revolts at this,
lies and calumnies will show him up as disloyal, cheating, immoral. Innumerable small
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police actions will gag the voice of his conscience and bind his will to resist. Finally the
most brutal of violence will render him impotent and if necessary destroy him....
This technique is used by National Socialism in dealing with nations and with
individuals, in the religious as well as in the political struggle. It is exactly that of the
pimp who seduces a gtrl, or that of the gangster who recruits an honest man to assist in
his crimes...
lherefollows a desøiption of thefall of Germany and Nazi techniques applied there]
l.
2.
3.
Seducing:
a common goal is proposed: restoring Germany to pre-Versailles treaty greatness
Compromising:
To reach this goal, all are invited to participate in the common struggle against
bolshevism and against all causes of division within Germany, the main one being
the'Jewish influence'. National Socialism secures the Church's support through a
concordat which demonstrates its good will towards Catholicism. Hencefortl¡ the
Nazis expect 'unbounded' support from the Church.
Perverting/destroying.
Then begins an appeal to natural cowardice through blackmail and terror, to
insure mass apostasies. Accusation of 'political Catholicism' are made against
priests and bishops: They are opposed to Nazism, because they have but one
dream: political power. They are unwitting allies to bolshevisrn, Jews and
foreigners, against the German nation. Their finances suggest treason against the
state. They are accused of immorality, which is a crime against the race. Should
they resist or keep operating, there remain a few pressure tactics: shooting, or at
least concentration camp and exile. The mass of the faithful then have no other
choice: either to bend, in order to survive, thus becoming accomplices of all the
crimes imposed on the nation by the Fúhrer in his quest for greatness, honor and
world conquest; or to disappear in the catacombs. Read, on this persecution,
Robert d'Harcourt's Catholiques d'Allemagne
fand now, the fall of Austríal
1.
Seducing:
An'excellent Catholic', Von Papen, who had negociated the concordat between
2.
3.
Germany and the Yatican, sent as ambassador to Vienna, insinuates that
normalizing relations with Germany's Nazi regime would be prudent politics.
Schuschnigg at Berchtesgaden, in Feb 1938, fails to maintain Austria's
independence. He is replaced by Seyss-Inquart and is sent to concentration camp.
Compromising:
Promising to 'render to God what is God's and to Caesar what is Caesar's', the
Nazis obtain total adhesion of the Austrian bishops to the new order. Cardinal
htnttzer goes so far as to sign offa letter to the Fúhrer with the ritual Heil Hitler...
Perverting/destroying:
The immediate result: cowards become accomplices and perverts. A religious, Dr.
Brettle, explains in Katholische Action the true meaning of that authentic national
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