Hitler's Pope
The G-Spot, Lunar Orbiter 1, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and On This Day.
BOC#035
6 MINUTE MUNCH
TITLE PIECE: POPE PIUS XII AND HITLER; AN UNLIKELY ALLIANCE.
According to John Cornwell’s book, Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII*, Eugenio Pacelli (1876-1958), later to become Pope Pius XII (1939-1958), played a key role in throning one of the 20th century’s most despised national leaders. But how, and indeed why would such a senior spiritual leader have anything to do with one of the 20th century’s ugliest atrocities?
The term “Hitler’s Pope” may strike readers as oxymoronic, and rightly so. It’s worth mentioning that there have been some efforts to redeem the reputation of Pope Pius XII in light of Cornwell’s devastating case against him, but I’ll leave that to you to investigate at your own leisure. The purpose of this post is to explore the idea expounded by John Cornwell that the Pope was not only complicit in Hitler’s rise, but played a key role, turning a blind eye to the tragedies of Nazi concentration camps.
The claims suppose that Hitler feared the power of the Catholic Church, and thus knew that he needed to neutralize its authority in order to attain the dictatorial power he sought. Between 1919 and 1933 at least five Catholic Center Party members became chancellors in ten cabinets, leaving little political scope for Nazi traction. Hitler understood this well enough, and sought to build an alliance with the Church. But what was in it for the Pope? Well, control of Germany’s schools at a time when Catholic schools had long been persecuted, particularly in countries like France where in 1904 Emile Combes boasted that he’d closed 13,904 Catholic schools.
The Catholic plight was one thing, but as we know, the Jews had long been persecuted in Europe.
In the early days of Berlin, Jews were the only national group required to pay the same tariffs as animals upon entering the city. This of course wasn’t the first time the Jews had been compared to animals. During the Spanish Inquisition, Jews who faked their conversion to Christianity were called “Marranos” which translates as pigs, and following the Fourth Lateran Council convened by Pope Innocent III in 1215, Jews were required to wear distinguishing headgear. They were denied social equality and were banned from owning land. Additionally, they were excluded from most forms of public office and trade. With no available alternative, Jews were forced to engage in money-lending to earn a living. In his book, John Cornwell elaborates on the fanciful anti-semitic ideas held in medieval England:
But the Middle Ages were also marked by the insidious development that was later to be known as the “blood libel.” Starting in England in the twelfth century, the belief spread rapidly that Jews tortured and sacrificed Christian children. There was an associated myth that Jews stole consecrated Hosts, the Communion bread that had become the “body and blood” of Christ in the Mass, in order to perform abominable rites. At the same time, allegations of ritual murder, human sacrifice, and Host desecration gave impetus to a belief that Judaism involved the performance of magic aimed at undermining and ultimately destroying Christendom.
John Cornwell. Hitler's Pope, John Cornwell (p. 41).
The idea that an openly anti-semitic political party would rise to power in Europe was therefore frightening for the Jewish community. What made it even more frightening, however, was the complicity and collaboration of the Vatican.
Pacelli’s Involvement…
As Cardinal Secretary of State, Pacelli turned against his own spiritual brethren to help crush the Catholic Center Party which consisted of loyal Catholics. He thus supported Hitler as Chancellor over the Catholic Democrat Heinrich Brüning.
Both the Catholic Church and the Nazi Party found a common enemy in Socialism and Communism. The feeling was of course mutual. Hitler wrote an article in “Völkischer Beobachter” in February 1929 saying “The fact that the Catholic Church had come to an agreement with Fascist Italy, proves beyond doubt that the Fascist world of ideas is closer to Christianity than those of Jewish Liberalism or even atheistic Marxism.”1
Hitler’s ideal strategy of collaborating with the Catholic Church was to integrate the Church’s political activity into the Nazi Party itself. This allowed the Papacy to pull political strings while remaining free from culpability so far as any civic authority was concerned. In other words, the Holocaust could take place without the Church being held accountable. The Enabling Act of 1933 which saw dictatorial power passed to Hitler was supported by Pacelli, who in turn called on a certain Ludwig Kaas who pressured the Center Party to agree to the act.
Pachelli understood the importance of relations between church and state in achieving his vision for Catholic influence in Nazi Germany, so as Secretary of State, he played a key role in the agreements between the Holy See and the German state known as the Reich Concordat of 1933. Cornwell writes:
The negotiations were conducted exclusively by Pacelli on behalf of the Pope over the heads of the faithful, the clergy, and the German bishops. (When Hitler became Pacelli’s partner in negotiations, the concordat thus became the supreme act of two authoritarians, while the supposed beneficiaries were correspondingly weakened, undermined, and neutralized)…For centuries, Vatican concordats had enshrined a variety of agreements between the Holy See and secular governments, securing rights to define doctrine; conditions of bestowing sacraments; rights to worship and education; laws concerning property, seminaries, clerical and episcopal appointments and salaries; marriage and annulment law.
John Cornwell. Hitler's Pope, John Cornwell (p. 99).
As previously mentioned, it was Ludwig Kaas, an expert in canon law with two PhDs, one in Theology and one in Philosophy, and a close friend of Pacelli who would be appointed chief influencer in the conspiracy to dismantle the Catholic Center Party, and build constructive relations with Hitler. Kaas became chairman of the Center Party in 1928, incidentally becoming the first priest to hold the title in the Party’s long history.
With the Nazis in control of Rome by 1943, SS Major Herbert Kappler was ordered to round up Italian Jews as had been done elsewhere, but Kappler had other ideas. Finding no threat from the Italian Jewry, he thought they might be better used to penetrate the ‘international Jewish financial conspiracy,” and instead turned to the threat of deportation as a tool by which to raise a ransom. Kappler ordered fifty kilograms of gold to be coughed up within thirty-six hours to help fund arms purchases. While the Vatican did authorise a loan that was to ‘be paid back’, ‘not an ounce of Vatican gold was donated or loaned” in aid of the Italian Jews. It’s also noted that Pacelli never publicly condemned the Holocaust by name.
Pacelli, by now Pope Pius XII, was very aware of the Jews being rounded up and sent to concentration camps, after all, his denunciations of mass murder were publicly broadcast over Vatican radio. The Nazi’s were persecuting Jews right under the Vatican window, so to speak.
While Cornwell’s book is extensive, I hope to have provided a brief synopsis of the overarching claims against Pacelli. Once more, I’ll leave it to the reader to investigate these profound claims further.
In conclusion, while we’ve only scratched the surface, it’s a fascinating bit of history to think about. This post is in no way intended to criticise or discredit the faithful, but rather, to understand what Lord Palmerston once said of great powers; that there are “no eternal friends or eternal enemies, there are only eternal interests”.
DID YOU KNOW…
Ernst Gräfenberg, the German gynaecologist who fled Nazi Germany for America developed an intrauterine device first known as the Gräfenberg ring. The ring was a pregnancy control measure that worked on the principle of placing a foreign object in the uterus, triggering an immunological response that would prevent fertilization. As one might expect, the device had its issues.
In 1944 Gräfenberg identified an erogenous spot on the wall of the vagina called the Gräfenberg or ‘G’ spot.
ON THIS DAY: 1st SEPTEMBER
The wreck of the RMS Titanic, unseen for 73 years, was finally located off the coast of Newfoundland today in 1985.
Germany invaded Poland today in 1939, marking the beginning of World War II.
The Welsh footballer Gareth Bale, left Tottenham to sign for Real Madrid today in 2013 for a record breaking 100 million euros (£85 million).
And; the Spring Temple Buddha in China, the tallest statue in the world for 10 years until it was beaten by the Statue of Unity in India, was completed today in 2008.
Taken by NASA's Lunar Orbiter 1 in 1966, this is the first photo of Earth from the moon's orbit.
FROM THE AUTHORS MOUTH:
“Edgar Rice Burroughs, born today in 1875 was an American writer, recognised for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, he also wrote the Pellucidar series, the Amtor series, and the Caspak trilogy. - Wikipedia
MISSED LAST WEEK? Read Here: The Murderous Despot Who Retired In England.
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Hitler’s Pope, Cornwell, John Page 115.