NYTimes RC articles

If I am not mistaken, an apologist for the Catholic Church sent me the articles below as evidence of the Church's supposedly taking strong stands of behalf of the Jewish victims of the Nazis. But despite their misleading titles, all that these articles prove is that the Catholic Church was concerned about its own members even if they has been Jews before they were Catholics, or if they were married to Jews. These articles are actually proof that the Church had nothing to say about the persecution of Jews as Jews.
NY Times
Dec. 4, 1943

Vatican Scores - Germans
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Denounces Decision to Intern and Strip All Jews in Italy
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Berne, Switzerland, (UP)
The Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano condemned the recent German decision to intern all Jews in Italy and confiscate their belongings and warned that it would affect numerous Catholics of Jewish descent, frontier reports said today,
A long editorial asserted that there as no understandable reason for the German Army to order the action, which will 'strike thousands of children and women, aged and sick, who all are children of God and who will be exposed to unprecedented sufferings increased by winter the reports said.
Expressing what it called the "feelings of the religious fraternity" and (sic) all Jews, the newspaper said that the "new decisions will also fall on numerous Catholics who are of Jewish origin but were born, inside Christ's flock and whose parents had already been converted to Catholicism years before their children's birth.
"Instead of alleviating the sufferings of the people in these exceptionally grave times, new hardships have been forced upon them. We emphasize the point that, to merit God's aid, it is necessary to practice charity toward all, to alleviate sufferings and show mercy toward people whatever their race and creed."

GERMAN CATHOLICS ASSAIL NAZI RULERS
Conference of Bishops Says Religious Persecution Is Flagrant in Reich
PLEADS FOR AID VICTIMS
Letter Thanks Pope for Effort to Bring Peace -
Racial God Notions Condemned
By wireless to THE NEW York Times.
Berne, Switzerland, Sept. 5, 1943, p. 7

In a forthright letter drafted by the German Catholic Bishops who attended the Fulda conference last month Nazi officialdom is openly accused of practicing religious persecution. (of Catholics) The letter, published in the Catholic International Press Agency in Germany, is the longest and most striking pronouncement addressed to the German congregations in recent years.
In cataloguing the repressive actions of the Nazi regime against (Catholic) religious worship the Bishops flatly accused the party of interfering with the education of Catholic youth and of depriving it of the spiritual comforts extended by the church. The Bishops said, further, that the authorities suppressed freedom of (Catholic) worship, in effect, by subjecting the services to oppressive restrictions. Parental authority also has been infringed, they charged.
Citing the needs of persons who have lost their homes and belongings in air raids and who are now being housed under strange roofs in strange environments, the Bishops said that never had a better opportunity been offered for the demonstration of Christian love and charity than is exhibited by the plight of evacuated women and children. Aid for Evacuees Urged
The letter specifically requested that the unending streams of refugees should not be deprived of the opportunity for (Catholic) religious worship and the succor and comforts of the church. The Bishops' pronouncement was signed by Adolph Cardinal Bertram of Breslau, Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber of Munich, Theodore Cardinal Innitzer of Vienna, by the twenty-six Archbishops constituting the Fulda College and six deputy delegates from the protectorates. The pastoral letter, dated Aug. 16, was to be communicated to the German congregations on successive Sundays during September.
The letter abounds in sly but fearless thrusts at the false god and Nazi tenets The Bishops` addressed 'themselves also to "those who saw fit to create a god after their own hearts, or one designed only for national or racial consumption."
The pastoral letter covers the problems of faith, church policy, youth and education, relations with State, and. deals at length with the situation created by air raids in so far as it affects church activity.
Denunciation of aerial warfare is outspoken. The letter echoes the papal sentiment that "we cannot forego voicing our feelings of deep pain and horror at the truly inhuman limit to which this wary, is being prosecuted."

Bishops Grateful to Pope
After decrying the attacks on innocent noncombatants and the destruction of churches and works of culture, the letter adds: "It is not within our power to compel a halt to this horrifying devastation, but we do raise our protesting warning, and imploring voices, as we have always done against those who transgress God's claim on human life (unless the victims were uncoverted Jews)."
In a section-acknowledging Pope Pius' efforts, the letter says: "We are deeply grateful to our beloved Holy Father, Pius XII, for giving such touching expression to his feeling of pain over the devastation wrought by air raids and for so sincerely interceding for the defense and sanctity of human feelings and duties in war-time (unless the victims were uncoverted Jews). "We are grateful to him for having appealed with all the authority reposed in him to all belligerents to preserve the dignity of their nation and to honor their weapons. We are deeply grateful also for his efforts to effect the reconciliation of the warring nations in behalf of an early, just, happy: and enduring peace."

July 6, 1943, p. 9:
Nazis to curb Catholic Prelates
Faulhaber and Others Signed
Protest on Anti-Semitic Move
By Wireless to The. New York Times from Stockholm, Sweden,
An issue between the Nazis and the Catholic Church. in Germany has been brought into the open by a protest signed by 'all Catholic 'Bishops in the Reich against a Nazi party plan to extend the wearing of the Star 'of David to "mischlings," in Nazi terminology the offspring of a Jewish father and an "Aryan" (and Christian) mother, or vice versa, as well as to persons married to Jews, said a report received here today.
According to private information, the three foremost of Germany's "fighting Bishops," Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber of Munich, Clemens Count von Galen, Bishop of Muenster, and Konrad Count von Preysling, Bishop of Berlin, have been subjected to restrictions on their liberty of movement for signing the protest.
It is estimated that about 400,000 "half-Jews" in the Reich would be affected by the projected Nazi order. The Catholic opposition (not to the persecution of the Jews, but to the persecution of Christians mistakenly believed to be Jews) inside Germany is steadily gaining ground, according to the above mentioned source.
The Nazis have replied by extending their seizures of convents, Catholic hospitals and other church property. Catholic journeymen's associations and trade organizations have been disbanded. In south Germany crucifixes and other religious images have been removed from schools."

Articles from the

about interaction between
the Church & the Reich

If only Cardinal Seredi had been the RULE, instead of the EXCEPTOIN !
N.Y. Times, April 14, 1945 p.15 : Cardinal Seredi of Hungary dies
Archbishop of Esztergom Was Abducted
by the Nazis before Fall of Budapest
Justinian Cardinal Seredi, primate of Hungary and Archbishop of Esztergom, who was previously reported to have been abducted by the Nazis. is dead, according to a Vatican German-language broadcast, reported yesterday by the Federal Communications Commisslon. The Cardinal, it was said, died "as a consequence of a heart attack", but it is not yet precisely, known where and under what conditions this occurred."
Held as a Hostage
Cardinal Seredl had been carried' oft by the Nazis as a hostage before the Russian armies captured Esztergom, his official residence ten miles north of Budapest, it was reported from Rome only two weeks ago. Budapest fell to the Russians on Feb. 15 after a fifty-day siege.
The Vatican had not heard from the Cardinal since Christmas, but understood that he intended to remain at his post as spiritual leader of Hungary. He, would, have been the first Cardinal living under Soviet occupation.
He was placed under house arrest by German SS troops in October last year for tits refusal to issue a declaration of loyalty to the Nazi puppet government of Premier Ferenc Szalasi. He had long opposed nazism.
As far back as 1934 he attacked totalitarian principles and ideologies. In a pastoral letter of that year he wrote,."It is not possible for a Catholic priest to approve Nazi principles. and I decidedly prohibit participation in this movement or even a benevolent attitude of any of my priests toward it."
Fought Anti-Semitism.
As a member by law of the Hungarian Upper House, Cardinal Seredi repeatedly raised his voice against anti-Semitic laws. In 1939 he spoke against legislation restricting Jews socially- and economically. Later he used the general meetings of the Catholic St. Stephen Academy to preach love and tolerance. In December, 1940, he made his first attack on "racial discrlminations" and two years later he uttered even sharper words against nazism.
"Christ's teachings do not acknowledge differences between men and do not know prerogatives which would entitle a man or a nation to oppress another man or nation on racial or national basis,", he declared.
"Human freedom to the greatest among all human rights, and for It humanity has fought innumerable battles. Such a battle is going on today and it will continue until freedom will have become such a natural need for people as air."
Roof Mender's son
Cardinal Seredi was the eighth child of a humble roof mender. He was born in the village of Deaki, Slovakia, and named George Szapucsek. As a boy he ran errands for the local postmaster until the priest of the community noticed his aptitudes and took him under his directlon. He joined the Benedlctine Order at the age of 17.
After attending Bratislava Catholic Boys School, he studied at the Benedictine University of Rome, where he received his doctorate In theology. In 1918 he was ordained a priest in Hungary, but soon returned to Rome, where Pope Pius XI appointed him counsellor of the Papal committee for the codiflcation of canonical law and confidential secretary of the Vatican Secretary of State. He was entrusted, by Cardinal Gasparrl with the editing of fourteen volumes of the work on church law known as "Codices Juris".

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