Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

HITLER VERSUS NATIONAL SOCIALISM 635coming when the Pope will be glad if the Church is taken under theprotection of National Socialism against the parties of the Center.'Perhaps in reality it was not too hard a blow for the Pope, or at least forhis Secretary of State, Cardinal Pacelli, that by the Concordat theywould have to forbid the German clergy to engage in political activity;the Reich government promised in a codicil that it would also preventthe Protestant clergy from engaging in political activity. The treatyobligated the Holy See, before appointment of any archbishop orbishop, to inquire if the provincial statthalter had any objection to thecandidate; also, the bishop had to swear loyalty to the German Reichand promise to respect the government.In return, the government agreed that many of the Church's religiousand social organizations, including the Catholic workers' clubs, wouldbe tolerated. While this was being discussed, the Munich S.A. assaultedmembers of these clubs who had gathered for a national congress (June11-12, 1933), and beat them severely, not far from the place where,fourteen years before, twenty-one Catholic workers had fallen beneaththe bullets and rifle butts of the murderers' army. But the conferences onthe Concordat went on.In renewing the Berlin treaty of friendship, the 'godless Jews of theKremlin' had been the first world power to hold out a hand to Hitler; theVicar of Christ on earth became the second. Many German Catholicsfelt more humiliated than protected by this treaty. The majority of thebishops and the Holy See saw thing's differ-endy. Not a few sons of theCatholic Church vacillated when confronted by the choice betweenobedience to their clergy and obedience to their secular leaders; theChurch now was compromising to save spiritual values in the modernman, values which lay outside of all social relations. On the other hand,such profoundly earthly considerations as concern for church property— cloisters, schools, hospitals — and for the livelihood of the clergymust also have influenced the Holy See in its dealings with theAntichrist.At the same time, the National Socialists tried to sever the CatholicChurch from the active life of the nation, they made a serious andpromising attempt to take possession of the Protestant Church whichwas a German Church to begin with. Here the task