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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