Evening Post. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1934. THE NAZI PAPACY

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 74, 25 September 1934, Page 8

Evening Post. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1934. THE NAZI PAPACY

Dr.' Mueller, the Primate of Germany, has lately been attracting even more attention than its secular [dictator, and in view of the extraordinary powers that he possesses, and of the extraordinary way in which he uses-them, he may be said, to have deserved it. It may also be said that to the strictly impartial observer from a distance the change is, regardless of the merits, a very welcome one. With all his virtues Herr Hitler, even when he is not lining up his best friends against a wall at midnight and purging the cause of them, with no option but that of suicide, is a very strenuous person. He is never reported to make a joke, and one feels that if one were perpetrated in that august presence it Avould perish as rapidly as his friends sometimes do. From such an austerity of virtue it is a relief to turn to the ecclesiastical dictator of Germany, who, whether he ever makes a joke or not, has no need to do so, for he is himself a perpetual joke, an unfailing source of harmless merriment to those who are beyond the reach of his decrees and his censures, and the more concrete attentions of the faithful Nazis with whom he is anxious to fill his pews and even his pulpits. As the spiritual head of a great nation Dr. Mueller is one of the best jokes of our time.

It must, however,, be admitted that the Nazi Primate of Germany has his solemn side if you choose to look for it. "Awfully solemn thing a funeral," says Mr. Brookes of "Middlemarch"—"if you take that point of view, you know." A writer, in the March "Round Table," , who takes this point of view, enables us to see that the Primacy of the German Evangelical Church is entitled to our respect as a historical marvel, if on no other ground. There is evidently no parallel to it in Europe, nor apparently, though this authority does not say soy anywhere else. But he does mention the Pope, who to the Western'mind represents the, highest degree of ecclesiastical authority and power, in order to show that the functions of Peter's successor are virtually those of a constitutional monarch in comparison with the absolute despotism [of this ready-made German Pope. The real Pope has behind him "a whole, long line' of predecessors; their encyclicals, the i Fathers of the Church, the general corpus .of its traditions, and the Councils." And even when he speaks "ex cathedra" as the infallible teacher of the Church, the Pope is "guided by her doctrine, by canonical law, and by his unity with the Roman hierarchy throughout.'the world." ''-..'. But the Nazi Pope is the first of his line. He has come into power as the result of a revolution which completely destroyed the constitutional function of the German Protestant Church, and the Nazi principle of leadership apparently gives him "the power to .determine, according to his own insight, qr lack of insight, its new constitutional foundations and to build up a fresh organisation upon them." As thus' expounded, this Primacy ,of Dr. Mueller's is indeed a startling phenomenon, but the "Round Table" writer makes it more startling still as he proceeds to illustrate in detail the logical manner in which the political doctrines of the Nazis have been applied by the Primate to the organisation and government of his church: .

He appoints and dismisses at his pleasure both the bishops and the ministry of the^ Eeich Church. Together with his' ministers, he has authority to make laws and to revoke them. : He' is now the dictator of the Church in spite of the fact that many of the bishops outside Prussia, and more than 7000 pastors, had declared that they no longer had any confidence in him. The impetus of the National Socialist revolution and Hitler's confidence have carried him to this high position. As the National Synod has formally nominated him for life, no one possesses the legal power' to remove him. His doctrine is, however, inevitably influenced by the. enthusiasm of the National Socialists, which he regards ,as "faith," For him, even though he does not clearly say so, Hitler is the God-sent leader of the nation;' the revolution and the new Gorl-giveh foundations of national life have taken \the place of the Old Testament.

It was presumably in February that this remarkable articje in the March "Round Table" was j written, and Dr. Mueller has been pushing his strange and mostly quite, unspiritual ideals with great energy ever since. The "Bulletin of International News" gives the following points from an address that he delivered at a German Christian gathering on March 1:—

He proclaimed as the German Christian watchword "one nation, one S.tate, one Church," and Said they would not rest until only National Socialists stood in the pulpits of German churches and only National Socialists sat below i them. He also expressed cautious agreement with certain of the Germanic ideas of Herr Eosenberg.

Seeing that Herr Rosenberg's book has been placed upon the Index, it was just as well for Dr. Mueller to be cautious in his support. But it is possible' that by this time he is reconciled to the breach with Rome as irreparable, for in an Easter Letter to the G.erman Catholic youth the Pope promised his support against Nazi "paganism"—a word which gave the Nazis great offence. Whether they were any better

pleased with the Pope's subsequent reference to Hitlerism as "leading back to heathenism" Aye are unable to say. While Herr Hitler, with both Austria and the Saar in view, is anxious to improve his. relations with the Vatican, his good friends Rosenberg and Mueller are not making it any easier.

From the speech at Hanover which was reported on Thursday it might even be supposed that Dr. Mueller is quite ready for a head-on collision with the Vatican. He declared that his avowed aim was to fuse Protestants and Catholics into a single-Nazi Church.

"I want tho church free frpm Rome," he said. "We are fighting for the goal of 'One State, One People, Ono Church.' Anyone who cannot join 'us in building up this church, must step aside. . If he refuses, I will force him. 1'

Is this threat addressed to the Catholics who refuse to join in building the Nazi Church as well as to the Protestants?, Probably not. It seems likely that the Primate had the members of'his own communion in view, but how is he going to "force" 'even them? His constant resort to military language is one of the most pleasing of his eccentricities. When ,he wanted a coadjutor or. secretary or whatever the normal ecclesiastical, term may be, he appointed Dr. Oberheid, Bishop of the Rhineland, to be his "chief of staff," and the swastika, and the Nazi salute and a Storm Troop band figured conspicuously at his rather chilly enthronement •'ceremony on Sunday. Did the 29 Bishops —all but one of his own make—who helped), him with the service click their heels as they gave him the' Nazi salute? But in spite of all his threats and his tall talk and his decrees of dispossession the minority is holding its own with wonderfull faith and courage, and it was very pleased to hear about a week ago that one of the 7000 pastors had got judgment against him for arrears, of salary and possession of his dwelling.

Of Sunday's proceedings we can only say that the dissentients appear to jiave had all the best of the enthusiasm and the popular support; that at Munich' Dr. Meiser said that "the Protestant Church had • never aroused such a mighty fighting spirit as during tlie present crisis"; and that it gives one another thrill to learn that Luther's great hynin was again doing duly. The, Nazis' travesty of religion has roused the spirit of Luther, against them no less than that of his sworn enemies.