HITLER’S WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 April 1940, Page 11

HITLER’S WAR

ATTACK ON RELIGION ANTI-CATHOLICISM. RECONCILIATION IMPOSSIBLE. According to Mr. Hilaire Belloc, the conflict between Roman Catholicism and Nazism is "beyond all reconciliation.' Mr. S. K. Padover. in "The Forum" (U.S.A.) has an interesting survey of this very grave crisis in German religion. He quotes the “Volkischer Beobachter." principal Nazi party organ, in its Vienna edition of October 15. 1938. as saying: "We are armed to continue the battle again Catholicism till the point of total annihilation.” The process of extirpation, he adds, has gone further than the outside world realises. Persecution began as soon as Hitler was in the saddle to which liehad been hoisted, not without Catholic help. By 1935. it had progressed t<;. public trials, a la Moscow, of thousands of nuns and priests, fined from 1000 (■ 150000 marks on charges of violating the weird currency laws. Brothers of various orders were mockingly accused of sexual offences. Catholic- editors were disciplined for daring to urge a modicum of justice. Young Nazis publicly ..sang ribald songs about the Church. Posters blared: Recognise them, the Roman Catholic vampires! German Youth, stay away from suchlike, Unite against the international bandits. The whoje apparatus of a powerful State was set in motion to break the morale of the Catholics.

J The Catholic Youth organisations - were liquidated in 1936. Ludwig Wol- - ker and 100 other leaders were seized — ’ on the charge of having had relations • with Communists! Many were never ■' heard from again. In the words of i Bishop Galen of Munster: "Today there i are in Germany fresh graves where rest the ashes of those whom the Catholic people regard as martyrs. . . although nothing is permitted to be re- . vealed as to how they met their end." A "cold pogrom" has gone on ever , since. Thousands'of nuns have been . ousted from schools, hospitals, kindergartens: good party members have taken their places. Diocesan seminar-’ ' ies have been closed, the Theological Faculty at Innsbruck abolished. Catholic moneys have been confiscated. All Catholic colleges have been refused recognition and the right to receive new students. From day to day the Catholics expect the worst. "This very uncertainty as to your future," the Bavarian Minister of Education told a delegation of Sisters, “is your punishment and it pleases me to keep you in the dark." The next steps will be economic. Loot from the Jews has helped keep the regime running. That source is rapidly becoming exhausted. The Nazis have already drawn up lists of all the convents and monasteries (there arc over 10,000 in Germany; thousands more in Austria). Some 20 000.000,000 dollars may be a safe estimate of the wealth of the Church in Germany. The Nazis are keeping this enormous resource in reserve; when they have destroyed Catholic morale. Church property will be confiscated with thoroughness and brutality. Why is the conflict between Nazism and Catholicism irreconcilable? There are five reasons: — First Nazism is itself a crusading religion; it can brook no others. Second, the Nazis hate Christianity "because if is Jewish." and Catholicism because it is international. Third, Catholicism, claims the loyalties of millions, especially the young; and Hitler, aware that victory depends upon the control of youth, has said. "If the older generation cannot get accustomed to us. we will take away the children and rear them in our spirit." Fourth. Nazism must have a succession of scapegoats; young Nazi hooligans must have some outlet, and the Jews are almost gone. Finally, there is that 20.000.000.000 dollars. The greatest of the new sects is the German Faith Movement, whose founder and president, is Wilhelm Hauer a former pastor and now professor of "theology" at the University of Tubingen. The sect has 1.000.000 members, including such important Nazis as Darre. Minister of Agriculture: Streicher. the boss of Franconia, and Wagner. the No. 1 man of Bavaria. It enjoys semi-official status. Writes Founder Hauer: "We must protest against the claim of the Christian religion to bo the religion of the German nation. For its essence is quite foreign and repugnant to us. Before us lies the goal of a Teutonic. a German morality which will rank higher than that of Christianity."