REPLY TO POPE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 171, 16 April 1937, Page 11

REPLY TO POPE

Germany’s Attitude To Recent Encyclical THE 1933 CONCORDAT No Separate Clergy Class To Be Allowed CHURCH AND BOLSHEVISM Bj- Telegraph—l’ress Assn.—Copyright. Berlin, April 14. Germany’s reply to the Papal Encyclical accusing the Nazis of violating the Concordat of 1933 and encouraging the anti-Christian movement, was delivered at the Vatican by the German Minister to the Holy See, Dr. Diego von Bergen. It protests against judging Germany on democratic standards. The population of Germany, it states, is only onethird Roman Catholic. Nazism lias saved the Church from Bolshevism. The obligation to preserve German unity does not allow the clergy to be a separate class, and German laws do not tolerate special aspirations. The Note rejects encroachments on German internal life, and concludes with a warning to the Vatican that peace will depend on the ability of the Church to live up to the changed situation. TERMS OF CONCORDAT The Berlin correspondent of “The Times,” London, reported on March 21 that in an encyclical read throughout Germany the Pope accused the Nazis of violating the Concordat of 1933 and encouraging the anti-Christian movement. He said he would not formally denounce the Concordat because his responsibility for the souls entrusted to his care prevented his ignoring the remaining possibilities of reaching an understanding. The Concordat between the Holy See and Germany, which was signed on July 20, 1933, was considered by the Vatican to be a fair compromise, for while it acquiesced in the disappearance of the Roman Catholic Centre Party in Germany, it ensured a wide field of liberty and practical usefulness to Roman Catholic organisations and associations so long as they undertook to stand outside every political party. The Concordat stated: "The Reich guarantees the liberty of profession and of public exercise of the Catholic religion. It recognises the right of. the Catholic Church, within the limits of the law, to regulate and to administer freely her own affairs and to issue within the field of her own competency laws and orders binding her members.” Article 32 lays down that “in view of the present special circumstances of Germany and in consideration of the guarantee, given by the dispositions of the present Concordat, for legislation which safeguards the rights and liberty of the Catholic Church in the Reich and in its Sthtes, the Holy See will adopt dispositions excluding ecclesiastic and religious persons from belonging to religious parties anH activities in this field.” VATICAN CONFERENCE Rome, April 14. The Pope has called a conference to consider the German Note.