Nazi and Nazarene

In fairness to both sides, something must be remembered which is customarily forgotten, [1] that the conflict between Nazism and the Church began before the Nazis came into power. In 1931, the Bavarian bishops issued a declaration which protested against the movement's racial doctrine, its attitude towards the Bible, and certain other aspects of its religious code. Priests were forbidden to take any part in it, and active members of it were to be denied the Sacraments. This did not prevent many Catholics from voting for the party at the crucial election; already the meet-them-half-way temperament had begun to assert itself; and, after all, anything was better than Communism. But friction between the official representatives of the Church and the official doctrines of the party had been, thus early, foreshadowed. It is also fair to remember that the Nazis, on their side, professed no love for the Church; there was no treachery, in this instance, about their approach. Nobody expected that the thin end of the wedge would be exactly a burglar's jemmy; but the householder had every reason to be on his guard, and not suffer his house to be broken up.