Nazis and Roman Catholics
The habit of cruelty which is becoming more deeply ingrained among the Nazis by constant practice among subject peoples did not originate in that way ; it was made notorious long before the war by their persecutions, within Germany, of Communists, Jews and professed Christians. The ill-treatment of Roman Catholics has not ceased during the war. On the contrary, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Munster, Count von Galen, shows, in his courageous protest, that the secret police have continued to rob the property of respected German men and women with- out investigation or action in the courts merely because they belong to Catholic orders. In a letter sent on July 28th to Reich Minister Hans Heinrich Lammers in Berlin, the Bishop says that he has begged in Vain for legal protection for innocent German men and women from gauleiters who are enriching themselves by seizing the property of Roman Catholics, and that their actions are destroying the inner front of the German people. For his boldness the Bishop is now understood to be under house- arrest. Such persecutions are not without their effect upon the Roman Catholic community in all parts of the world. There are reasons for believing that the Vatican, which once regarded Communism as the most serious enemy of the Roman Catholic
faith, now puts Nazism first in that category ; and indeed the recent interview of Mr. Myron Taylor with the Pope is believed to have confirmed the view that the Papacy has modified its attitude to the Soviet State. The Nazis stand in a category by themselves. Their system produces degeneration incompatible with tolerance for Roman Catholicism or any other religion.
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