Pope Pius XII

The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany (Pre-WW II)

Some observers regard the Church's relationship with the Nazi regime as similar to those it established with other non-communist states and governments. Dr. Eamon Duffy, a historian of the papacy, observed that the Church under Pius XI followed a consistent policy of establishing concordats with individual states during the 1920s and the 1930s. This included concordats with Latvia (1922), Bavaria (1924), Poland (1925), Romania (1927), Lithuania (1927), Italy (1929), Prussia (1929), Baden (1932), Austria (1933), Germany (1933), Yugoslavia (1935) and Portugal (1940). These concordats sought to normalize relationships between the Holy See and the German federal states whilst protecting publicly-funded Roman Catholic-run schools, hospitals, charities and third-level institutions from state seizure or persecution.

Related Topics:
Nazi - Communist - 1920s - 1930s - Latvia - 1922 - Bavaria - 1924 - Poland - 1925 - Romania - 1927 - Lithuania - Italy - 1929 - Prussia - Baden - 1932 - Austria - 1933 - Germany - Yugoslavia - 1935 - Portugal - 1940 - Holy See

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In particular the concordats were aimed at ensuring that the Church's canon law had some status and recognition within its own spheres of concern (e.g., church decrees of nullity in the area of marriage) among new or emerging states with new legal systems. Duffy suggests that the concordats provided technical procedures through which formal complaints to the states could be made by the Holy See.

Related Topics:
Canon law - Nullity - Marriage

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Between the German Concordat's signing in 1933 and 1939, Pope Pius XI made, from 1937, three dozen formal complaints to the Nazi government, which were drafted by Pacelli but which show only a gradual realisation of the gravity of the Nazi threat and Nazi misuse of the concordat. The strongest condemnation of Hitler's ideology and ecclesiastical policy was the encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge, issued in 1937 by Pius XI, which was in part composed by then Cardinal Pacelli.

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