Catholic Church in Nazi Germany: Introduction

While the Catholic church occupied a minority role in German religious society they were a continual thorn in the side of Nazi leadership. The catholic church occupied a pivotal role in government, primarily through their formation of the Centre Party. The Centre Party would later play a key factor in the passing of the enabling act, which gave Hitler and the rest of the Nazi party control of the government. The enabling act was the most important governmental action for the formation of Nazi because it was the final piece that would set in motion an entire era in German history. The Nazis never received the voting majority in the national elections that they desired and the enabling act allowed them to circumvent the voting process that plagued their legal rise to power. Unlike their protestant brethren, the catholic church from the top gave off a united front, however, there was dissent towards the Nazis amongst individual Catholics. The protestants were split into two factions, the German Christians and the Confessing Church. The concordat between the Nazis and the Catholic Church made it possible, at least on paper, for the church to put forward a united front. The Vatican has been an epicenter of world influence since seemingly the beginning of time but their lack of response to Nazi atrocity towards Jews is regrettable. The Vatican’s silence was as a loud of a message as someone could communicate. 

Though Hitler felt a particular urgency and hatred when dealing with Jews and Communists, he viewed the Catholic Church as a pernicious opponent, a deeply-entrenched threat that must be controlled and eventually uprooted from German life in order to establish his promised Thousand-Year-Reich. - KAROL JOZEF GAJEWSKI (Nazi Policy and the Catholic Church)