Why did the Roman Catholic church do nothing about the Nazis?

Question

I'd have excommunicated the lot of them!

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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...

Answer 3

It's a complex question which won't go away.

The Italian fascists wanted the Catholic Church destroyed. However, "Il Duce" was realistic enough to realise 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."

Call me cynical but...

Lots of love,

I really need to access your work,

Paul
OOXXOO

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

The Roman Catholic Church did not support the Nazi regime, who tried to put themselves across as a christian organisation (among other things). They were openly anti-catholic....so no need to excomunicate 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.

Answer 6

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.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Hitler%27s_Pope:_How_Pope_Pius_XII_Rescued_Jews_from_the_Nazis

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 witihin 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.

Answer 7

They were excommunicated.

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 one's 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.

With love in Christ.

Answer 8

You can only excommunicate catholics, a lot of the Nazis were Lutherans.

Answer 9

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.

Answer 10

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.