Nazism well understood the danger the Church posed. It combatted the Church with a vengeance; unfortunately, Catholics in Germany were too weak and disorganized to block the gang of criminals who took over that country. Will we replay the tragedy? Will we be softened up to be killed off? How strong do you think the Church in Canada is to rebuff the warped, fascistic ideology of the "World Pride" event taking place? Remember, silence will mean a further advance for this "despicable heathenism" (c.f. Bishop Gloffner below). Silence is not an option; certainly not for the martyr.
Are we Catholics, Christians... men and women of good will now slipping into the unfortunate position of Jews in 1930s Germany? Think about it.
As long as the Roman Catholic Church stays within its boundaries, as long as it deals with the religious lives and experiences of its faithful, and as long as it does not interfere in the areas of politics, economics and culture, those areas that the National Socialist government reserves entirely to itself in the interests of the whole of the people, each church and religious group in Germany can conduct its activities unhindered and free of outside influence.
In his bishop’s letter issued shortly before 30 January 1933, Johannes Maria Gföllner, Bishop of Linz, said it clearly:
“The nation is not the highest power, nor may the state be idolized; The highest power for each nation is and remains religion.” (that is, the Catholic Church)...
According to the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, these people are more important than all scientific knowledge, so they cry bloody murder about the National Socialist state whose wise genetic policies and careful, justified elimination of incurable defectives are working to make the German people once again into a healthy, strong, youthful people....Closely related to the agitation against the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Ill Offspring is political Catholicism’s battle against the powerful discoveries in the area of racial science. Bishop Gföllner is even clever enough to declare that the National Socialist standpoint is completely irreconcilable with Christianity, calling it a return to despicable heathenism...
Every German-thinking people’s comrade must resist the arrogant attempts of such people to oppose the state and National Socialist principles. When, for example, an itinerant Catholic preacher stands behind the pulpit and preaches to Catholic Germans that he prefers a Negro, a mulatto of pure soul, to a sinful Aryan, when he says that the Semitic race must be esteemed because Christ the man is of Semitic ancestry, when he calls on his hearers to fight for Rome and to be dissatisfied, then even the most faithful Catholic can only shake his head about such backwardness, narrow-mindedness, and ignorance, and leave such an apostle of agitation and hatred to himself...
We have no intention of allowing hysterical cowl-wearers, foreign to the people and the world, to risk even one word that goes beyond the realm of religion...
No comments:
Post a Comment