‘We WERE complicit in Nazi crimes’, German branch of the Catholic Church admits in ‘confession of guilt’

Mail Online

By CHRIS DYER FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 1 May 2020

• German branch of the Catholic Church admits it did not denounce Nazi crimes
• New report states that Catholic bishops ‘made themselves complicit in the war’
• It states they didn’t share ideology but helped support ‘soldiers and the regime’
• Vatican defenders say Church used diplomacy and hid Jews during Holocaust

The Catholic Church in Germany has admitted making itself ‘complicit in the war’ by not opposing the Nazi regime, a new report reveals.

For decades the Catholic Church has been accused of staying silent over the crimes of the Nazis and even acting to ‘bolster’ the Third Reich.

In response, the Church has long defended World War II’s Pope Pius XII and avoided saying the ecclesiastical institutions failed.

But a new report from the council of Catholic bishops in Germany describes how bishops ‘made themselves complicit in the war’ by not clearly opposing Adolf Hitler.

It also says that bishops did not share the Fuhrer’s racial ideology, but they still helped support ‘both soldiers and the regime’.

The report into the role of bishops between 1939 and 1945 states hundreds of priests accompanied the Wehrmacht on the front-lines to offer spiritual guidance, according to The Times. 

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In ‘confession of guilt,’ German Catholic Church admits ‘complicity’ with Nazis / BISHOPS ‘GAVE SUCCOR TO THE REGIME PROSECUTING THE WAR’

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL / By TOI STAFF 2 May 2020

After decades of ambivalence, document prepared by clergy says hundreds of priests gave spiritual guidance to Hitler’s soldiers on front, ‘lent war an additional sense of purpose’

Pope Pius XII blesses faithful at the Vatican, March 4, 1949. (INTERCONTINENTALE / AFP)

In a new report after decades of ambivalence, Germany’s council of Catholic bishops has finally admitted to the church’s complicity in the actions of the Nazi regime during World War II, The Times reported Friday.

The 23-page document by the council reportedly states, “Inasmuch as the bishops did not oppose the war with a clear ‘no,’ and most of them bolstered the [German nation’s] will to endure, they made themselves complicit in the war.”

German Catholic bishops admit they were ‘complicit’ in Nazi crimes

NEW YORK POST

By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon / May 3, 2020 | 

Adolf Hitler with the Vatican ambassador in 1935

Germany’s Catholic bishops have acknowledged that they were “complicit” in allowing the Nazis to rise to power and stood by while they launched World War II, according to new reports.

In a 23-page report made public this weekend, Germany’s Council of Catholic Bishops said it didn’t do enough to oppose the rise of Nazi power and even cooperated with Adolf Hitler’s regime during the Second World War, according to a report originally published in the UK’s Sunday Times.

Newly Unsealed Vatican Archives Lay Out Evidence of Pope Pius XII’s Knowledge of the Holocaust

The Catholic Church’s actions during World War II have long been a matter of historical debate

By Theresa Machemer SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
MAY 5, 2020

New research from the Vatican Archives sheds light on Pope Pius XII’s decisions during World War II. (Photo by Fred Ramage / Keystone / Getty Images)

Pope Pius XII led the Catholic Church during the tumult of World War II, but his silence on the fate of the millions of Jews killed during the Holocaust has clouded his legacy with controversy.

To critics, the pontiff’s refusal to publicly condemn the Nazis represents a shameful moral failing with devastating consequences. In his polarizing 1999 biography of Pius, British journalist John Cornwell argued that the religious leader placed the papacy’s supremacy above the plight of Europe’s Jews, winning a modicum of power—and protection from the rising threat of communism—by becoming “Hitler’s pope” and pawn. Supporters, however, say that Pius’ silence was calculated to prevent German retaliation and ensure the continued success of the Catholic Church’s behind-the-scenes efforts to aid victims of Nazi persecution.

‘Women’s rights are being trampled’

Voices from a protest march in Warsaw over Poland’s near-total abortion ban

By Kuba Kaminski, Antonia Mortensen and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

January 31, 2021

Editor’s note: The people photographed and interviewed by CNN did so on the condition that they are only identified by their first names to preserve their anonymity.Warsaw, Poland — The protesters who marched through the Polish capital’s icy streets on Friday night had a clear message for the government over its imposition this week of a near-total ban on abortions: We will stand up for women’s rights.It was the third day of protests since the ruling came into effect — and marked 100 days of protests since Poland’s constitutional tribunal court first handed down its controversial ruling, sparking weeks of mass demonstrations.Following those protests, the government had signaled it was open to dialogue. But on Wednesday it unexpectedly published the law enforcing the court’s ruling, which states that abortions may only be permitted in cases of rape, incest or when the woman’s life is in danger and bars the termination of pregnancies with fetal defects.

The Roman Catholic Church, the Holocaust, and the demonization of the JewsResponse to “Benjamin and us: Christanity, its Jews, and history” by Jeanne Favret-Saada

David I.Kertzer / Brown University

Abstract

Following eleven years’ work, in 1998 a high-level Vatican commission instituted by Pope John Paul II offered what has become the official position of the Roman Catholic Church denying any responsibility for fomenting the kind of demonization of the Jews that made the Holocaust possible. In a 2001 book, The popes against the Jews, I demonstrated that in fact the church played a major role in leading Catholics throughout Europe to view Jews as an existential threat. Yet defenders of the church position continue to deny the historical evidence and to launch ferocious ad hominem attacks against scholars who have researched the subject. The anti-Semitism promulgated by the church can be seen as part of the long battle it waged against modernity, with which the Jews were identified.

Witchcraft, Religion, and the State Apparatus: The Witch Craze Revisite / (Mohamed EZROURA FLHS –Rabat)

“. . . millions of witches, sorcerers, possessed and obsessed were an enormous mass of severe neurotics [and ] psychotics. . . for many years the world looked like a veritable insane asylum. . . .” (Gregory Zilboorg). 

“. . . the witch-craze was neither a lynching party nor a mass suicide by hysterical women. Rather, it followed well-ordered, legalistic procedures. The witch-hunts were well-organized campaigns, initiated, financed and executed by Church and State. . . .” (Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English) 

I. Introduction: The Apparatus and the Witch 

In the study of cultural phenomena, cultural studies has often focused on the notion of the Cultural 

Apparatus (C.W. Mills), or the Ideological State Apparatus (L. Althusser), as a motor of cultural change, a regulator of cultural maintenance, and even a powerful eugenic mechanism that the State deploys to discipline individuals and to shape them psychologically into obedient, docile citizens who can toil their whole lives trying to be good souls and prepare to inhabit paradise after death!

AN OPEN LETTER

An open letter with a question to international and domestic institutions whose fight and care for human rights are  the grounds for their existence and work:  

“Since when are morals, ethics and justice, on which the fight for inalienable human rights, especially childrenˈs,  is based, not important to you?”

Why have you turned a deaf ear to the Lawsuit and kept your mouths shut although  the three most recent Popes admitted to almost all the crimes committed by the  Roman Catholic Church?!

David – nongovernmental human rights organization the name of millions of the oppressed, deceived, tortured, murdered, robbed SUES THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, HEADQUATERED IN THE VATICAN

The lawsuit is based on the admission by the three most recent popes of the crimes and evils against humans and peoples committed by the Roman Catholic Church throughout history up to the present moment.  

This letter will be sent to the international institutions which in the world represent a morally ethical equivalent of rightfulness, truth and justice to raise their voice and publicly condemn and sanction (prohibit) the religious institution which has done a lot of evil throughout history and still does. 

Vatican Inc.: 5 facts about the business of the Catholic Church

by Ahiza Garcia,  September 24, 2015

The Catholic Church is the spiritual home to 1.1 billion people around the world. It’s also a big business that handles billions of dollars.

Here’s how it makes money and how it spends it.