Catholic Opposition to Hitler: The Perils of Ambiguity

Abstract

In their introduction to Religion and Society in Tension, Charles Y. Glock and Rodney Stark make point that, at least in Christian cultures, is expected to be at odds with around it.1 If this is a normal state of affairs, how much more intense strain and antagonisms must be in a world dominated by a state authority openly dedicated to objective of subverting organized religion to serve its own purposes or, if that is not possible, eliminating it and its influence altogether. Since emergence of such states seems to be a recurring event in history of man, a definite sociological problem presents itself as to how religious community is to cope with them. Adolf Hitler's Third Reich is deserving of special mention only in that it is among most recent and more successful of such attempts. One might be tempted to balk at Judeo-Christian culture description in context of Nazi experience, but fact is that throughout its aborted thousand year reign, National Socialist regime continued to present itself to supporters, admirers, and opponents alike as the defender of Western Civilization. Even its efforts to expunge Judeo component of that Western heritage (and, in process, exterminate its living representatives) were justified, assuming that