Why Wasn’t Hitler Excommunicated?
I’ve been asked two questions concerning Hitler’s relationship with the Catholic Church that seem to demonstrate the Church’s culpability in the Holocaust: Why wasn’t Hitler excommunicated from the Catholic Church? And, why wasn’t Mein Kampf put on the Index of Forbidden Books?
It is true that Mein Kampf was never banned by the Catholic Church; however, this does not mean that the Church approved of the book. Mein Kampf was examined by the Vatican for three years before deciding not to ban the book. They had more than enough reason to ban the book, but they had a good reason not to, as well as something better than simply banning the book.
Although the Church did not approve of Hitler, he did come to power legally; thus, the best thing the Church could do was to get Germany to sign a concordat to secure certian rights of the Church within Germany. Banning a book written by the chancellor of Germany would not have been a wise diplomatic move, and would have likely hindered getting the concordat signed. Getting Germany to sign the concordat, however, gave the Church the right to do something better than banning Mein Kampf. Pius XI’s 1937 encyclical, Mit Brennender Sorge (With Burning Concern), was a direct assault on the Nazi ideology and a critique of Mein Kampf. It was not written in Latin, which is the usual language for papal encyclicals, but in German. Without any pre-announcement, copies were smuggled in to Germany and read from the pulpit of every Catholic church in Germany on Palm Sunday (Mass was two hours that day).
Mit Brennender Sorge was the first official denunciation of Nazism made by any major organisation, and because of the concordat that the Nazis had signed with the Catholic Church four years earlier, Catholic priests could legally read it from the pulpit. This did not stop Nazi reprisal, but it did help. The Catholic Church was not able to make such a massive affront to the Nazis again; however, the French did air drop 88,000 copies of Pius XII’s 1939 encyclical, Summi Pontificatus (On the Unity of Human Society), over Germany as Ally propaganda.
These two encyclicals make it very clear that the Catholic Church did not approve of Hitler or the Nazis; however, some say the Catholic Church could have taken an even further step in opposition by excommunicating Hitler.
Excommunicating Hitler would have been pointless. He left the Catholic Faith when he left his parents’ home. His own description of his religious beliefs was as “a complete pagan.” Nonetheless, any Catholic priest could have refused the sacraments to him because he would have been excommunicated ipso facto due to his numerous crimes. There is no evidence that Hitler ever attempted to receive the sacraments after his childhood, and since the only reason for excommunication is to help a sinner recognise the gravity of his sin, thus leading him to seek forgiveness, it would have achieved nothing in Hitler’s case.
The Church would have formally excommunicated Hitler if she felt that it would have had some positive effect, and, in the interest of both Christian and Jewish lives, the Church chose not to ban Mein Kampf.
August 15th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT: JUST WHO IGNORED THE HOLOCAUST?
http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/blog.cfm?id=456
Posted Aug. 14, 2009 11:16 AM || by Phil Lawler
The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, has come in for some richly deserved criticism in recent months, publishing articles that have ranged from the inane (tributes to Michael Jackson and Easy Rider) to the damaging (a claim that Barack Obama is not pro-abortion). Still let’s give credit where credit is due, and the latest attention-grabbing headline from L’Osservatore deserves applause.
For many years now, critics of the Vatican have claimed that Pope Pius XII was silent in the face of the Holocaust. The criticism is unjustified; it ignores the ample evidence that the wartime Pontiff made great efforts, and took substantial personal risks, to save Jewish people from extermination.
But if you are inclined to think that Pope Pius XII should have been more outspoken in his condemnation of Nazi racial policies, you really should be prepared to compare the Pope’s statements with those of other world leaders. And since many of the calumnious accusations at the late Pontiff have come from the US, it’s fair to ask the question that L’Osservatore now finally raises: Were American diplomats any more outspoken than their Vatican counterparts?
The answer, unfortunately, is No.
Unlike Pope Pius XII, American policy-makers from President Roosevelt on down through the ranks of the State Department were not facing personal threats from the Nazis; Hitler had not ordered up plans for them to be assassinated or kidnapped, as he apparently had with Pius XII. The Pope had to weigh the reality that when he spoke out against the Nazis, that regime would retaliate against both Catholics and Jews living in Europe under the control of the Third Reich. American leaders had no such concerns; their country was already at war with Germany, and bellicose statements were entirely appropriate.
Yet even in time of war, and even with clear evidence of what was happening in the concentration camps, the US government chose not to tell the world about the Holocaust. Nor were American leaders alone in their silence. If there’s any reason to criticize Pope Pius XII on this score, there’s far more reason to criticize Roosevelt and Churchill. And while we’re at it, there’s equal reason to criticize the New York Times, whose editors had their own evidence about the Holocaust, and sat on the story. Kudos to L’Osservatore Romano for printing a pointed reminder about people who live in glass houses.
September 25th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
I thought that the Catholic German Bishops excommunicated all members of the Nazi Party in 1930, as the head of the party that would have included Hitler.
September 30th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
In searching the internet about Pius XII, Hitler and the events leading up to World War II, I have found a few webpages that assert that the German Bishops excommunicated all member of the Nazi Party in 1930 or sometime later, much like the excommunication of all members of the Communist Party. None of these assertions refer to specific documents, so I’m led to believe that they are false.
What may have been misinterpreted as excommunication is pastoral letters by the bishops of Berlin and Westphalia in 1930 condemning the Nazis. In that same year, the Bishop of Mainz affirmed that “every Catholic is forbidden to be a member of the Nazi Party.” The following year the Bavarian bishops, followed by the bishops in Cologne, Paderborn, and the upper Rhine made similar statements describing National Socialism as heretical and incompatible with Catholic teaching. By the end of the year “the entire German episcopacy had declared itself against the movement.” In 1932 a common pastoral letter made an all-inclusive prohibition on Nazi party membership, and forbid uniformed groups of National Socialists from attending Mass. The basic result of all this is pretty much the same as excommunication, but it was not an actual excommunication.
I got the above information from the book Righteous Gentiles: How Pius XII and the Catholic Church Saved Half a Million Jews from the Nazis by Ronald J. Rychlak. I read this book five week ago while I was on retreat. I’m planning on writing a review of it, but I don’t know when I’ll have time to get around to it. I highly recommend this book.
December 9th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Why didn’t the church excommunicate Hitler? He was by definition a catholic since he was baptised.
Simple reason – it was the Catholic church who gave the world the hatred of the Jews, Jesus own people. They were the Christ Killers, the drinkers of blood of infants etc. This went on through a thousand years or more, with horrendus results, culminating in the Holocaust, WWII and 50 million deaths.
But for the church to have excommunicated hiter, it would have had to excommunicate itself.
Why – because the Catholic church gave hitler the lever – hatred of the Jews – to take over Germany. And the rest is history.