Delicate Situation Over German R.C.s

Northern Advocate, 25 June 1946, Page 5

Delicate Situation Over German R.C.s

(Rec. 1.0 p.m.) LONDON. June 24.

A situation of some delicacy has arisen between the military government and Roman Catholic Church as a result of the church's delay in fulfilling de-Nazification requirements, said a senior British official, according to the Herford correspondent of The Times.

Although it is hoped that Roman Catholic leaders will prove accommodating and follow the example of the Evangelical Church, military government officials are not sanguine about the chances of avoiding a clash of opinion. It is stated that the trouble has arisen from a ruling of the control commission nearly two months ago that the church authorities should form de-Nazification panels consisting of five to eight members, two of whom will be laymen.

An Evangelical conference early in May recognised the need of such a purge and went far towards accepting the British plan for north of the Rhine. The Free Church submitted names of suitable members for panels, but the Roman Catholic Church so far has not submitted names. „ NO YIELDING

Members of the military government are aware that a number of persons involved in the de-Nazification of the Roman Catholic Church will be small in view of its resistance record, but it is stated that the principle is one in which the military government is not prepared to yield. A priest at Minden recently was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for an outspoken attack against British requisitioning of a school building. The report of the churches, based on a survey of the Rhineland and Westphalia provinces, which are predominantly Roman Catholic, has been published in the British zone-.

The review says that articles highly critical of the British attitude and policy have been circulating widely in Roman Catholic circles. Some priests are rejecting the principle of Germany’s moral duty to pay reparations. A DIFFERENT MATTER

Both Roman Catholic and Protestant clergy are circulating accounts oi misery and inhumanity supposedly prevailing in Eastern Germany. The report says that while it is only natural that the churches should concern themselves with the care of refugees, anti-Communist propaganda and attempts to set the western Powers against Russia were a different matter.

The report concludes that Roman Catholic clergy were a nationalist rather than a democratic influence on German life, while Protestants were taking a more tolerant and liberal attitude.