1941-01-24 — Page 3

The second of these is parti- words of the present Pope, then cularly valuable in that it is ex- Cardinal Secretary of State, in clusively concerned with Nazi

a letter to Cardinal Schulte of errors in faith and morals It is Cologne on March 17, 1935. As indicative of the serious and wide- the Catholic Press still had some spread nature of these errors that freedom at that time in Germany a Roman Congregation (of Semin- it was possible to publish this aries and Universities) under the letter in the Kolnische Volkszei. personal presidency of the Pope should consider it necessary to tung.

condemn the errors of racialism in a letter addressed to Catholic educational institutions through- timed, being made known to the public on the day of Hitler's so→ lemn entry into Rame. The Holy Father, after making a particular reference to Germany, speaks of "pernicious

it to be necessary for salvation to believe certain doctrines, to the intrusion of the party into the adopt a number of religious prae- religious sphere would be render- appear milder than it really was; Church, he speaks of the blindness out the world. It was also suitably

ed more difficult,

a

Encouraging the Archbishop to all attempts to deny it or make it

resist the persecutors of the there had rurely been such It did not succeed in this aim, fierce and painful persecution or of this new heathenism and says that the Nazis are preaching a but since neither Pope nor Bishops one so tragic in its effects. ex-

new Faith and a new Gospel which any these doc- had been under

The Fapal utterances of 1938 is not the Gospel of Christ, were largely repetitions of carlier statements.

tices which follow from this be lief, and to observe A definite moral code. She claims an clusive right to teach trines and to remind her subjects of the moral laws and she mands freedom för them to prac- tice their religion externally, but she is indifferent to forms of gov-

de

ernment so long as these things are safeguarded.

Before National Socialisın at tained to power, the Papacy was not directly concerned. The Ger man Bishops, acting in their pro per sphere as guardians of Faith and Murals, condemned the due trine of the new movement, not- ably in the instruction 到 The

Bavarian Bishops to their clergy on February 11, 1931

This attitude of the Bishops ac cording to Wilhelm Solzbacher. was expressly approved by the Pope.

Illusions

about the dangerous tendencies in National Socialism, they were not unprepared for the struggle which followed.

During the Troubled years since 1933, the Papal polley has remain

A perfectly correct

ed constant.

irs

attitude towards the government has been maintained, because spite of Nazi faithlessness there is no essential incompatibility be- tween the existence of a tofalitar- in government and the 'contime ed mission of the Church,

But each particular interference with the Church's mission, every

breach of the Cuncordat, has met with resistance and profest. And has National Sucialist doctrine been condemned in the most un- compromising fashion. In their instruction they stated

For the Papacy,

for the that they had no wish to discuss Catholic Church, false doctrine, the political and governmental the advocacy of a way of life con aims of National Socialism but trary to Christian teaching, is were anxious about its cultural finitely more dangerous than the ains, which rejected the essentials worst political tyranny. Naturally of the Christian Faith, and its she deplores the effects of such attempts to replace this by a new tyranny, especially in the relig Weltanschauung view

the ious sphere, but it is not her task world; the Christianity of which to remove tyrants, while it is pre- the Nazis speak is not the Chris- eminently her task to maintain tianity of Christ.

purity of doctrine.

faithful

All these are examples of the Pope's anxiety that the should be allowed to

No Compromise The National Socialist faith, op

doctrines" and

in-

Structs lecturers to refute certain "completely erroneous assertions."

the

is

While Rosenberg was attacking the Pope before a gathering of State and Party officials on Sept- ember 6, 1938, Plus XI was call practice ing attention to the words of the

These include the claim that their religion and listen to the Mass in which Abraham is called there is a fundamental diversity of teaching of the Church. But the "our patriarch"; anti-semitism, he human races, that the strength of condemnations of National Soe- said, was incompatible with this race and purity of blood are sup- ialist doctrine and the assertions text and Christians could not

be reme ends and love of face of the Church's right to judge on anti-Semites.

highest good, that mankind On the occasion of Hitler's visit merely an aspect of the Cosmos faith and morals are much strong- er and leave not the slightest to Rome in May, 1938, the Pope and that the individual lives only doubt about the incompatibility described the swastika as another through and for the State. Other stated, could propositions, it is of Catholicism and National Soc- ialism.

cross "that is not the Cross of

easily be added to these, Christ" and, later on in the year

Mit brennender Sorge is a re- he called it a cross "hostile to

markable document. Instead of be- the Cross of Christ,"

ing written in Latin it is written in German, and indeed in a Ger- The Papal View Stated man so powerful and direct that posed to the Christian, received its

it defies adequate translation; it most authentic exposition in Ros- The classic document contain was published in Germany and enberg's Mythus des zwanzigsten ing the Papal attitude to National read simultaneously from the pul- Jahrhunderts (The Twentieth- Socialism are however the en- nits of every Catholic Church in Century Myth). This work was cyclical Mit brennender Sorge that country as a result of a secret placed on the index of forbidden (With Burning Grief) of March organisation which proved itself books on February 7, 1934. Since 14, 1937, and the instruction given to be too clever even for the uoi- the Nazis claimed that this was to the rectors of Catholic univer- quitous Gestapo to discover. a private work when they were sitics and seminaries on April 13, attempting to win

Catholic 1938. over support, they could not regard this "Morality, the Pope says, must act as directed against the gov be based on the will of God and ernment.

on a true belief in Him, not on Nevertheless the solenunity of the changeable opinions of men. Papal Protests

such a condemnation on the one He insists also on the recognition hand and the consistent support of the natural law, made mani- The frequent protests of the which Rosenberg received from fest by human reason, the rejec- National Popes against the persecution in the Nazi leaders

the the other tion of which must on Germany are well-known.

clearly indicate the fundamental destruction of all order and social Three times in 1934, Pope Pius opposition between the Papacy organisation. XI spoke of the sacrifices German and the National Socialists. Nei- The publication of the encycli- Catholics were making for their ther side is prepared to compro- cal represents a climax in the his The Concordat between the religion. In 1935 he used the mise on the question of Faith. tory of the relations between the Church and the Stale was indeed word “persecution" for the first On numerous occasions. Pope Church and the Third Reich. a sign of their consistency; for it time in reference to events in Pius XI insisted on the anti-Chris- During the three and a half years recognised the authority of the Germany and spoke of attempts tian character of National Social- that have passed since then little National Socialist government in to destroy Christianity and to ist ideas. On February 24, 1934, has been said because little needed its proper sphere while providing lead the nation back to barbar- he said that racial pride had ex- to be said.

No one who reads guarantees for the unhampered isin. Later in the year he spoke pressed itself in ideas and teach- Mit brennender Sorge can have activity of the Church in spiritual of a struggle against God and ing to a degree that was neither any doubt about the uncompro

mising attitude of the Papacy to- Far from compromising with Amongst many other protests, On April 5, he described Nat- wards National Socialism as National Socialism, it represent the Pope, at Christmas 1937 in- ional Socialism as not only false philosophy of life which is com- and his constant harping on the ed an attempt to bind the new rul- sisted on the reality of the per- Christianity but s veritable pletely irreconcilable with that of "immortality" of the German ers by treaty obligations, so that secution and rejected categorically heathenism.

the Catholic Church.

Reich are well-known.

The Concordat And Consistency

The success of the Socialists in 1933 created a new situation but the attitude of the Pope and Bishups remained com- sistent.

affairs,

Jesus Christ.

Christian nor human.

mean

J

Where Nazism Offends

In this Encyclical Pope Pius demanded first "pure belief, in God." He condemned those who identify God with the world, who reduced Him to a mere impersonal Fate or who give to the race, na- tion or State the highest rank in the scale of values.

He insisted on the unity of the human race.

He protested against the Nazis' abuse of sacred terms and ideas. In this lies one of the most dan- gerous aspects of National Social- ism, in that it takes over words which have a definite meaning in Christian theology and gives to them an entirely new sense, de- ceiving the faithful at Arst and finally leading them to a wholly false belief.

Hitler's appeals to Providence