CALLED TO ROME

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 134, 3 December 1935, Page 12

CALLED TO ROME

BISHOP IN GERMANY

REPORT ON ARRESTS OF

CATHOLICS

(Received December 3, 2.35 p.m.)

BERIJN, December 2.

The Vatican has ordered Dr. Peter I.egge, Bishop of Meissen, to go' to Rome and report on his own case and also on. the arrest of Monsignor Banasch and. other arrests of Catholic prelates, and on the attitude of the Nazi authorities to the Church generally.

Dr. Legge, Bishop 'of Meissen, was fined £8000 for violating the currency law by smuggling out money from Germany. Of the total fine £3200 was remitted owing to the months during which he was awaiting trial. It was stated that if the remainder is not paid he will be imprisoned for three months. The Bishop's brother Theodore was sentenced to five years' penal servitude and was fined £5600 for complicity. Dr. Soppa, the Bishop's Vicar General, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and was fined £5600.

' Monsignor Banasch has been imprisoned on a charge of high treason. The indictment alleged that lie engaged in collecting material relating to incidents between Roman Catholic Church dignitaries and officials and Nazi authorities. Prominent Roman Catholics who are taking up the defence say that Monsignor Banasch acted solely on the instructions of his superiors in the interests of the Church.