Catholic Church and Nazi Germany

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The Catholic Church, led by Popes Pius XI (1922 to 1939) and Pius XII (1939 to 1958), confronted National Socialism from the rise of the Nazi Party through the Second World War. In the early 1930s, about one third of the German population was Catholic, and Catholic regions generally gave the Nazi Party lower electoral support than the national average. Although the Catholic-aligned Centre Party voted for the Enabling Act of 1933, the Church hierarchy and many Catholic leaders had criticized National Socialism since the 1920s, and numerous bishops issued formal condemnations of Nazi ideology. The 1933 Reichskonkordat formally guaranteed Catholic rights, but the regime soon restricted Catholic institutions, closed schools and organizations, and targeted clergy and lay leaders, including those killed during the Night of the Long Knives. Pius XI's 1937 encyclical Mit brennender Sorge accused the government of violating the concordat and promoting hostility towards the Church. Persecution intensified...

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