For the Catholic Church, the year could not have begun any worse with Bishop Richard Williamson’s denial of the Holocaust. Williamson, recently rehabilitated by Pope Benedict XVI, created a scandal of significant magnitude that was only exacerbated with the Pope’s slow response to international criticism. Adding fuel to the fire, Walter Mixa, Bishop of Augsburg, preached an Easter Sunday sermon in which he equated the Nazis regime and the Communists with “…the inhumanity of atheism…” The sermon is cited as the latest attempt by leading prelates in rewriting history.
The Nazi Regime and Catholicism
Although it is true that many Catholics suffered under Nazism and were killed in Concentration Camps, it is also true that other Catholics, including members of the church hierarchy, condoned Nazism or chose to ignore the more controversial aspects of Nazi policy. Bishops like Clemens von Galen of Munster challenged euthanasia but others openly advocated for National Socialism, notably Austrian bishops at the time of the plebiscite.
The standard answer is Catholicism’s abhorrence of Bolshevism; National Socialism was seen as the lesser of two evils. In many surviving newsreels, primarily of Nuremberg party rallies and street parades, Adolf Hitler and his cohorts are frequently flanked by Catholic bishops. Many leaders of the Nazi movement identified with both the Catholic and Protestant Churches.
Dr. Joseph Goebbels, born and raised Catholic, was educated in Christian schools including a school run by Franciscans. Heinrich Himmler was also raised in a devout Catholic family and in his diaries refers to his own devout beliefs. Although in almost all cases these men, as well as other Nazi leaders, either departed from their religious roots or meshed them with liberal secular philosophies, there is no substantial historical evidence to say that they were atheists.
Hitler himself frequently expressed that he was fulfilling a divine will and credited Nazi goals with perfecting God’s creation. While this in no way implies that Hitler was in any way a true believer and may even play into the argument that as a politician he said what he knew people wanted to hear, he never defended atheism.
Atheism, Communism, and Fascist Ideologies
Markus Becker, writing in Spiegel Online, (March 13, 2009) quotes the philosopher Michael Schmidt-Saloman as saying that Bishop Mixa’s “claim that the Nazi regime was ‘godless’ is ‘a massive distortion of history.’” Becker states that, “Avowed atheists were not welcome in the Nazi party or the SS.”
Ties between Protestants and the Nazi regime were also evident. The German Christian movement, for example, split the Protestant Church over clear and open support of National Socialism, even electing a “Reich’s bishop.” Although manipulated by the state, the movement espoused many of National Socialism’s anti-Semitic ideals.
Although Communism was strongly identified with atheism, Serge Schmemann, writing in the April 2009 National Geographic, cites a “legend” that features Josef Stalin secretly visiting “St. Matryona of Moscow, a blind and paralyzed women to whom many people came for spiritual guidance.” This saintly woman apparently counseled Stalin not to leave Moscow but to confront the advancing Germans. Schememann further states that two wartime Orthodox patriarchs, “proclaimed Stalin a believer.”
Some historically erroneous claims, like Bishop Williamson’s Holocaust denials, are easy to refute; others, like Bishop Mixa’s, often require deeper research and analysis. Yet in both cases history is distorted, often with far-reaching consequences.
Sources:
- Markus Becker, “German Bishop Links Nazi Crimes to Atheism,” Spiegel Online, March 13, 2009
- Guenter Lewy, The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964)
- Serge Schmemann, “Resurrecting Russia’s Church,” National Geographic, Vol. 215, No. 4, April 2009
- Peter Wensierski and Steffen Winter, “I Will Not Travel to Auschwitz,” interview with Bishop Richard Williamson, Spiegel Online, February 9, 2009
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