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Jesuit Says Pius XI's Document Was Prophetic
ROME, 4 APRIL 2007 (ZENIT) On Palm Sunday of 1937, Pope Pius XI's
encyclical "Mit Brennender Sorge" was read in all the parishes of
Germany.
It was arguably the Holy See's harshest criticism ever of a political
regime, according to Jesuit Father Peter Gumpel.
He says that the 70 years since the encyclical's publication have
confirmed what the Holy See understood about the nature of Nazism and
that the encyclical was prophetic in explaining how the separation of
faith and morality leads to decline and war.
In exploring the history, nature and teachings of "Mit Brennender Sorge"
(With Deep Anxiety), Father Gumpel explained that after World War I, the
Holy See had often attempted a concordat with Germany, without
succeeding.
There were concordats with some German states, such as Bavaria, Prussia
and Baden, but never with Germany itself.
On Jan. 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor and, as early as April,
offered a concordat to the Holy See on his own initiative.
The Holy See did not believe or trust Hitler, but it found itself in the
difficult situation of being unable to refuse what appeared to be a very
favorable agreement, Father Gumpel explained. The Holy See therefore
signed the concordat even though everyone in the Roman Curia knew that
Hitler would not follow or respect the agreements.
Persecution of Catholics
A few weeks after the signing of the concordat, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli,
the future Pope Pius XII, then-secretary of state, was asked by a
British diplomat whether Hitler would respect the concordat.
Cardinal Pacelli replied: "Absolutely not. We can only hope that he will
not violate all the clauses at the same time."
And in fact, immediately after the signing of the concordat, Hitler
began persecuting Catholics at every turn, so much so that the Holy See
sent 50 protests to the government.
Despite the official protests, the Nazi persecution increased, in
education, in the press, with the imprisonment of priests. By 1936, the
German episcopal conference asked for public intervention.
The German bishops were expected in Rome for their five-yearly visit in
1938 but the date was moved forward to 1937. On that occasion, all the
prelates agreed to ask the Holy See to publish a document condemning
Nazism.
Father Gumpel told ZENIT: "The archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Michael
von Faulhaber, secretly composed the first draft of the encyclical. To
maintain secrecy, he wrote it by hand instead of dictating it.
"To Cardinal Faulhaber's text, which was the basis of the encyclical,
Cardinal Pacelli's interventions were added, and in seven weeks a text
was prepared with passages that were even stronger than those proposed
by Cardinal Faulhaber."
Secret distribution
Pius XI signed the definitive text of the encyclical on March 14, 1937.
Printed copies were brought by diplomatic briefcase to the nuncio in
Berlin. He passed these on to the bishop of Berlin, who had them
distributed by secret couriers to all the German prelates.
Twelve printers reproduced the text under the noses of the Gestapo.
Several bishops had copies printed in the hundreds of thousands.
Afterward, again in total secrecy, the text was distributed to every
parish priest, chaplain and convent, and the encyclical was read in
every church on March 21, 1937, Palm Sunday.
"I was 14 years old and was at in the cathedral in Berlin when the text
of the encyclical was read during the homily," Father Gumpel told ZENIT.
"The cathedral was packed and the general reaction was one of approval."
The language was clear and explicit: Hitler was deceiving the Germans
and the international community. The encyclical affirmed that the Nazi
leader was perfidious, untrustworthy, dangerous and determined to take
the place of God.
The Jesuit observed that "the reaction of Catholics was enthusiastic"
while "Hitler was furious." It was said that, in fact, Hitler was so
beside himself that for three days he did not want to see or receive
anyone.
A print shop employee informed the Gestapo about the encyclical on the
Saturday evening prior to Palm Sunday, but it was already too late to
stop anything. The Gestapo did not dare to enter the churches because
this would have incited a revolt, Father Gumpel said.
Still, there were Gestapo guards in front of the churches on Sunday
morning, checking to see if anyone had a copy in hand. Anyone found
possessing a copy was arrested. The 12 print shops were taken without
reimbursement and some people ended up in jail.
Jewish elation
The international community reacted enthusiastically. The Jewish
communities were elated since that encyclical presented the strongest
condemnation of racism. All the Jewish newspapers in the world showed
their enthusiasm for what the Holy See had done, Father Gumpel recalled.
"Nevertheless," he added, "despite the Pope having declared Hitler
untrustworthy, at the conference in Munich in 1938, England, France and
Italy came to an agreement with the Nazi regime."
According to Father Gumpel, the encyclical is "a document whose value
goes beyond the historical context; there are parts that have taken on a
prophetic significance and a contemporary relevance."
"'Mit Brennender Sorge,'" the Jesuit continued, "has more than a
symbolic value; it is based on the principles of natural law and faith.
It is prophetic also in regard to today's situation and it has a
permanent value.
"If one does not comply with the natural law or the faith he falls into
decadence and history has amply shown that this creates continual
problems in the international order."
Denouncing Nazism
The first part of the encyclical traces a history of the concordat and
it points out the continual violations in regard to the Catholic Church
and the faithful.
There is a part in which "Mit Brennender Sorge" denounces "whoever
identifies, by pantheistic confusion, God and the universe, by either
lowering God to the dimensions of the world, or raising the world to the
dimensions of God, is not a believer in God."
The encyclical condemns racist ideas, which "divinize with an idolatrous
cult," land and blood and "perverts and falsifies the order God has
planned and created."
The pontifical document underlines "the error of speaking of a national
God, of a national religion; or attempt to lock within the frontiers of
a single people, within the narrow limits of a single race, God, the
Creator of the universe, King and Legislator of all nations before whose
immensity they are as a drop of a bucket."
"Mit Brennender Sorge" strenuously defends the Old Testament, arguing
that "whoever wishes to see banished from church and school the biblical
history and the wise doctrines of the Old Testament, blasphemes the name
of God, blasphemes the Almighty's plan of salvation, and makes limited
and narrow human thought the judge of God's designs over the history of
the world."
The encyclical commends those who, defending the Catholic religion, "are
subjected to a violence that is as illegal as it is inhuman," and it
speaks clearly of temptations to "the Judas bargain of apostasy."
There is also an explicit condemnation of the attempt to build a
"national German church."
On the moral plane "Mit Brennender Sorge" strongly opposes "all the
efforts to remove from under morality and the moral order the granite
foundation of faith," a road that leads to "the moral degradation of
individuals and societies."
The condemnation of the Nazi principle that "there is a right to what is
useful for the nation" is also implied. Indeed, in a prophetic way it is
said that, "that principle, detached from the moral law, would mean
internationally a perpetual state of war among nations."
No. 1 enemy
Father Gumpel also emphasized that "the harshest statements against
Nazism were Pacelli's, and Hitler knew it," so much so that Hitler
considered Pacelli his No. 1 enemy and feared his moral power.
The Jesuit priest then commented on the report that appeared in La
Repubblica last week, according to which archive documents from former
East Germany reveal that Pacelli was the Nazis' enemy and that the
Soviet Union was behind the campaign to calumniate Pius XII.
Gumpel told ZENIT: "These revelations do not add anything to what the
Holy See already knows, but it is important for those who have thought
and written that Pacelli was 'Hitler's Pope.'
"Now there are other documents that show how many false statements have
been made about Pius XII. The responsibility of the Soviets is also
evident in the campaign to calumniate Pius XII." ZE07040412
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