Many unhistorical works have been written about the Holy See's attitude to the Nazi regime and it's inhuman and anti-Christian ideology. The following communique was sent to Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Vasyl Ladyka (and to all the Canadian Catholic Bishops) by the Apostolic Delegation of Canada on 28 September 1937:
I take the liberty to call Your attention upon the enclosed article, published by the “Osservatore Romano” No.215, entitled “After the Congress of Nuremberg", and dealing with the grevious conditions in which the Catholic Church actually stands in Germany. I respectfully beg from Your Excellency to invite the faithful to prayer in order that the merciful Lord might abbreviate the days of tribulation. In front of the campaign of disinformation and falsehood which certain agencies pursue, even in Canada, about the real objective of the religious persecution in Germany, I beg for Your Excellency to enlighten, by all possible means, the faithful of Your diocese, by exposing the gravity of the situation and showing how the rights of the Church have been disregarded.
3 comments:
This is very helpful and significant to know. I wonder how many other such documents exist still languishing in archives while the Holy See continues to be slandered for "inactivity"?
There are too many publications about the Holy See and the Third Reich but they appear in scholarly European publications and are seldom translated into English.
It should not be forgot that before the Nazis took control of Germany, the Church and the Catholic Party allied themselves with the Socialist and Liberal parties to form an anti-Nazi coalition. This Catholic-Socialist-Liberal coalition preserved German democracy until they lost their parlimentary majority.
Rather than allow the anti-Nazi coalition to continue its majority, the Conservative Party instead threw its lot with the Nazis (also joined by Von Pappen, the leader of the right-wing faction of the Catholic Party, who was expelled for his betrayal), to form a minority government.
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