8, 9. (a) How did the Vatican as well as the Catholic Church and its clergy react to the Nazi tyranny? (b) What statement did the German Catholic bishops issue at the start of World War II? (c) In what have religio-political relationships resulted?

⁸ Though a handful of priests and nuns protested Hitler’s atrocities​—and suffered for it—​the Vatican as well as the Catholic Church and its army of clergy gave either active or tacit support to the Nazi tyranny, which they regarded as a bulwark against the advance of world Communism. Sitting pretty in the Vatican, Pope Pius XII let the Holocaust on the Jews and the cruel persecutions of Jehovah’s Witnesses and others proceed uncriticized. It is ironical that Pope John Paul II, on visiting Germany in May 1987, should glorify the anti-Nazi stand of one sincere priest. What were the other thousands of the German clergy doing during Hitler’s reign of terror? A pastoral letter issued by the German Catholic bishops in September 1939 at the outbreak of World War II provides enlightenment on this point. It reads in part: “In this decisive hour we admonish our Catholic soldiers to do their duty in obedience to the Fuehrer and to be ready to sacrifice their whole individuality. We appeal to the Faithful to join in ardent prayers that Divine Providence may lead this war to blessed success.”

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This item appeared in the first edition only of The New York Times, December 7, 1941, the same day Nazi Germany’s ally Japan attacked Pearl Harbor

‘WAR PRAYER’ FOR REICH

Catholic Bishops at Fulda Ask Blessing and Victory

By Telephone to THE NEW YORK TIMES

FULDA, Germany, Dec. 6

The Conference of German Catholic Bishops assembled in Fulda has recommended the introduction of a special “war prayer” which is to be read at the beginning and end of all divine services.

The prayer implores Providence to bless German arms with victory and grant protection to the lives and health of all soldiers. The Bishops further instructed Catholic clergy to keep and remember in a special Sunday sermon at least once a month German soldiers ‘on land, on sea and in the air.”