A lot of Catholics did subvert the Nazis. You could just as easily ask: "Why did United Kingdom and France sit on their hands when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and violated the Treaty of Verseilles? After all, if we had done the right thing then, instead of later, millions of people would not have died in a Second World War.
There is a book called "Hitler's Pope," by John Cornwall, which looks at the relationship between Pope Pius XII and Nazi Germany. There is an abridged version from Vanity Fair on the site below:
OK, first the German Nazis were not Catholics.
Second, Pius XII actually supported the Nazis and was as anti-Semitic as they were.
That's why JP II gave his "apology" to the Jews 60 years later.
Your information is mostly biased and wrong, for the truth regarding the Vatican's actions during WWII see the book "The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis" written by Rabbi David Dalin.
Additionally, the book "Hitler, the War, and the Pope" by Ronald J. Rychlak is a direct response refuting the book "Hitler's Pope."
There is much documented evidence of the Church doing everything witting its means to save as many Jews as possible. If Pius XII had spoken up too loud, the Church would have been crushed by the Nazi's who already occupied all of Italy and Rome surrounding the Vatican. The Vatican would have been useless and could have saved no Jews if it had not been left untouched by Hitler.
Fr. Frederick Hoffmann. The author was a young Czech priest detained in Buchenwald and Dachau in the years 1940-1945 who made it his intention to observe and write down the sufferings of the clergy, at the risk of his life, as he gathered valuable files and lists and interviewed thousands of priests who were among the millions of Catholics murdered by Nazis during this shameful period of world history. Father describes in shocking reality the individual sufferings of Czech, Polish and French priests and then publishes the complete list of the dead and living priests of all nations who had suffered in Dachau. Of the 2,670 priests who passed through Dachau, the highest percentage were Polish, 64%. By all of the documentation, Fr. Hoffman's book becomes an incontestable proof of the persecution of the Catholic Church and of the murder of her clergy during those dark years of the 20Th century, now known as the bloodiest in the history of the world. This remarkable heroism should be hidden no longer!
Oh they did ALOT about the Nazis. Although all of it was bad. Like Project Paperclip, where they helped get the top Nazi Scientists to America and helped them change their names. Sure we kept them from Russia/Soviet Union BUT we also helped keep them from justice. They also helped blame the Jews for the murder of Christ instead of teaching that he laid down his life. That of course allowed Hitler to use his propaganda against the Jews.
The Italian fascists wanted the Catholic Church destroyed. However, "Il Duce" was realistic enough to realize that Italy, per SE, would not accept the removal of The Church. So, Vatican City was born. It became a separate State within Rome. And then...
Naziism. The ultimate solution. The murder of anyone perceived as being non-Aryan and against the State.
The notion of the 'ratlines': escape for senior (and, indeed, low rank) members of the SS via the Vatican, has never been proved. HOWEVER, many Nazis escaped to South America and avoided prosecution as war criminals. It took Simon Wiesental(?) to track most of them down.
But, did a pope assist their escape? We will never know. Still, we'll never know whether the Vatican supported (at least in principal) the decimation and/or slaughter of non-Catholics.
There is an irony in as much as: Jews killed Jesus (who was a Jew in the first place). The Roman Empire fell apart. Christianity followed. Catholicism (universality) was not far behind. Then eventually, there was The Reformation. Then the Counter-Reformation. Then (well, you get the picture).
Each major religious change, throughout the world, has been accompanied by war.
"Peace, brother. Really? Kill him. He is not a true believer."
Then you're fantastic!!!!! Why didn't America step in earlier? Why are not pope? Do you boycott Chinese product because they invaded Tibet? Do you refuse to buy petrol for all the bad it does to the environment or the lack of human rights in many countries that produces some?
Do you not know that actually the catholics, like the rest of the world was divided. The Pope and his fellow cardinals probably wet their pants at the time, fearing for the sake of the Vatican, while some priests would agree with the Nazi and some fight them.
Then, if you would have excommunicated the pope, you great man, I suggest that you start doing something now about all the injustice and mass murders that occur regularly in our world.
If I had a magic wand, I would have offer you extra neurones...
Some of the Nazis were catholic for sure. The southern part of Germany has a LOT of catholics. Mengele, the worst Nazi of them all was in fact, catholic.
Excommunication would not have mattered to most Nazis. Nazi leadership wasn't exactly pro-Catholic. They were more interested in bizarre mysticism. Plus, Germany wasn't all Catholic to begin with. There's no point in excommunicating a Lutheran, it can't affect how they receive the sacraments in a Lutheran church.
Check out the link in the source below. You may find it interesting.
Automatic excommunication happens when Catholics commit certain offensives. This happens as soon as the offense is committed.
Adolf Hitler committed the following offenses resulting in automatic excommunication:
- Apostasy - the formal renunciation of ones religion. Hitler specifically rejected the Catholic Church, as well as Christianity in general. He described himself as "a complete pagan.?
- Heresy - a doctrine in theology, religion, philosophy, or politics at variance with those of the Catholic Church. Nazism is definitely heretical to Christianity.
There was no reason for the Catholic Church to excommunicate Hitler. He did it all by himself.
This is another of the Vatican's buried secrets.The Pope and Hitler conspired together and it is believed that large amounts of art was split up between them usually from dead Jews.Individual catholics did in fact support resistance movements in Europe and many(not millions)were killed by the Nazis in concentration camps.Read the history of the Popes and you will see they cannot be assumed to be good men just because of the position they held.
The Roman Catholic Church did not support the Nazi regime, who tried to put themselves across as a christian organization (among other things). They were openly anti-catholic....so no need to excommunicate a group that were not catholic. So technically, the Nazis created a new form of Prodestantism, with Mein Kamf replacing the bible......it actually did replace the bible in German churches!!!
seeing as catholics were on Hitler's hate list, along with communists, Slavs and most famously the Jews, i cant really see why the R.C. church would support him.
Why did the Roman Catholic church do nothing about the Nazis?
