German Church admits aiding Nazis

[Cattitude]

I posted this in the In The News forum, but I haven’t gotten much response there. Can anyone help me out with this? Thanks!

Hopefully this is not against forum rules…

 

[Cristiano]

What kind of response do you want? I do not see a specific question coming from you. What kind of help do you want? The article is very generic just a couple of numbers thrown in there with no references at all.

 

[e61iuser]

I would reply “So?”, followed by “What would YOU have done instead if you were the head of the German Church, or even the Pope, knowing that any move you make against Hitler would subject millions of Catholics to atrocities? Can you handle that big of a burden on your shoulders?”

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

I would reply “So?”, followed by “What would YOU have done instead if you were the head of the German Church, or even the Pope, knowing that any move you make against Hitler would subject millions of Catholics to atrocities? Can you handle that big of a burden on your shoulders?”

So a lot. This admission, & the facts behind it, make completely impossible any denial of those facts. People can’t have it both ways: either your defence is valid, or, it is not needed if the German Church did not collaborate with the Reich. Both lines for defending the Church won’t work - they contradict one another. So either one, or the other, or some other that has not yet been mentioned, will have to be used instead. Or, people should stop trying to defend the Church, & be content with whatever the actual facts may be.​

Catholics only look foolish if they use contradictory arguments for defending this or that - this is why defences of papal infallibility are so unconvincing: the pleas in defence are contradictory. IMHO, people tie themselves in quite unnecessary knots as a result of trying to refute anything & everything that puts the Church in a bad light. Sometimes, it’s best just to admit charges, because they are quite often true. No harm is done if the Church is less than spotless - it doesn’t need to be.

 

[e61iuser]

Like I said. “So?”

 

[Wildgraywolf]

I don’t think “aiding” is an accurate word. The article uses terms like: “forced labor”, “prisoners of war”, “forced to work”, “forced labor” and “drafted”. When I think of “aiding” I’m thinking of something a person freely chooses to do.

**Germany’s Roman Catholic Church has acknowledged the extent of its involvement in the use of forced labour during World War II. **
A 700-page report says 1,000 prisoners of war and some 5,000 civilians were forced to work for the Nazis in support of the German war effort.
They were drafted from 800 Catholic-run institutions across the country.
The Church had previously paid $2m in compensation to foreign workers who the Nazis had used for forced labour.

 

[Church_Militant]

So a lot. This admission, & the facts behind it, make completely impossible any denial of those facts. People can’t have it both ways: either your defence is valid, or, it is not needed if the German Church did not collaborate with the Reich. Both lines for defending the Church won’t work - they contradict one another. So either one, or the other, or some other that has not yet been mentioned, will have to be used instead. Or, people should stop trying to defend the Church, & be content with whatever the actual facts may be.​

Catholics only look foolish if they use contradictory arguments for defending this or that - this is why defences of papal infallibility are so unconvincing: the pleas in defence are contradictory. IMHO, people tie themselves in quite unnecessary knots as a result of trying to refute anything & everything that puts the Church in a bad light. Sometimes, it’s best just to admit charges, because they are quite often true. No harm is done if the Church is less than spotless - it doesn’t need to be.

I see no contradiction, especially since I’ve never sought to defend this aspect of the church.

Th fact is that these people were doubtless better treated than the alternative, and were compensated after the war (so the article says).

Here’s something comparable to consider.
German POWs were also forced labor during the war right here in the U.S. were they not?

Japanese-American citizens were “interred” during the war and most of them lost their livelihoods and homes. Were they ever compensated by the U.S. Government?

The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 authorized an apology and reparations of $20,000 each to Japanese-Americans who were interned during the war, but the Act applied only to American citizens or permanent U.S. residents…

Among whom were many Catholics.

 

[MoBeck]

the story isn’t terribly clear:

Germany’s Roman Catholic Church has acknowledged the extent of its involvement in the use of forced labour during World War II
**. **
A 700-page report says 1,000 prisoners of war and some 5,000 civilians were forced to work for the Nazis in support of the German war effort.

They were drafted from 800 Catholic-run institutions across the country.

The Church had previously paid $2m in compensation to foreign workers who the Nazis had used for forced labour.

So, were these slave laborers provided to the Church then taken away? Is the charge that they accepted the POWs and foreign workers in the first place or that they failed to fight to stop their being drafted to serve in the war effort?

A total of 6,000 workers among 800 Catholic institutions doesn’t sound like a lot, esp. since millions of slave laborers became vital to the Nazi war effort.

I think that the Church,like all Germany, probably just wanted to forget “the late unpleasantness” as they used to call our Civil War and move on:

“It should not be concealed that the Catholic Church was blind for too long to the fate and suffering of men, women and children from the whole of Europe who were carted off to Germany as forced labourers,” said Cardinal Karl Lehmann, the bishop of Mainz.

The Protestant Church in Germany has admitted a similar use of forced labour during the Nazi era.
A number of leading German companies, such as Deutsche Bank, Volkswagen and Siemens have, in recent years, commissioned reports into their own dubious involvement.

 

[twb1621]

Perhaps those who jump to conclusions at such a shallow article such as this would be interested in knowing more and should read “The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: Pope Pius XII and His Secret War Against Nazi Germany”.

 

[rpp]

No one considers Oskar Schinder to be a war criminal and he employed many more Jews than the Church is accused of employing. Come on folks, remember the movie? It WAS a true story.