Germany and the Roman Catholics The pastoral letter issued by
the Catholic Bishops of North Germany after their recent conference at Fulda is perhaps the most outspoken statement that has yet been made on the bitter struggle between the Catholic Church and National Socialism. The bishops indeed assert that the struggle is one not merely for the existence of the Church but for the existence of Christianity itself ; their words should be meditated by prelates in this country who deprecate the heroic attempts of sincere Christians in Germany to preserve the purity of their faith in a National Socialist State. The letter was read throughout Germany, in Berlin by the Bishop himself, Graf von Preysing. It is significant, as Nazi papers emphasise, that it was not signed by the Austrian bishops. For the religious struggle exists within the Church as well as between the Church and the State ; the letter represents an assertion of the views of such men as Cardinal Faulhaber, of Munich, as opposed to the Pro-Nazi views of the head of the Church in Austria, Cardinal Innitzer, Archbishop of Vienna. The religious conflict has reached its bitterest, perhaps its final, stage. There are some who say National Socialism is now face to face with its most dangerous and powerful enemy ; it would be more accurate to say, like the Catholic Bishops, that the moment has come when the Church in Germany must either fight or die, and lose yet another country for Catholicism.
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