“700 Club” Errs on Catholic Church and Hitler

http://www.catholicleague.org/ ^ | April 23, 2013 | Bill Donohue

[NKP_Vet]

In a segment titled “God and Hitler,” Gordon Robertson (son of Rev. Pat Robertson), hosted a discussion on the Catholic Church’s response to Hitler. Several errors of fact were made.

1) It is wrong to paint Hitler as a Catholic. Though he was baptized, he excommunicated himself, latae sententiae, when he sought, in his words, to “crush [the Catholic Church] like a toad.” He made good on his pledge by persecuting 8,000 priests, over 500 of whom were killed in concentration camps. He also sought to assassinate the pope.

2) The 1933 Nazi-Vatican Concordat was not a show of solidarity. As Rabbi David Dalin has shown, it was a protective measure designed to protect German Catholics from persecution. In fact, at least 34 letters of protest were sent from the Vatican to the Nazis between 1933 and 1937, culminating in a 1937 encyclical that condemned Nazi violations of the Concordat and its racial ideology. It was smuggled out of Italy and distributed on Palm Sunday to Catholics in Germany. Nothing like this happened in Protestant churches in Germany.

3) It is not true that Hitler met resistance from Protestants alone. There are 800,000 trees planted in Israel that represent the 800,000 Jews saved by the Catholic Church. None have been planted as a tribute to Protestants. During the war, the New York Times twice said the Church was “a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent”; Albert Einstein also singled out the Church during the war. After the war, Golda Meir praised the work of the Church, as did the ADL, the World Jewish Congress, and scores of other Jewish organizations.

4) It is factually wrong to say the Vatican archives have “never been seen.” Many scholars have had access. As for Pope Pius XII being “Hitler’s Pope,” it should be noted that John Cornwell, the ex-seminarian who originated this term, retracted it years ago. So why does “The 700 Club” continue to cite it?

[Cronos]

my mistake. I apologize. however, I still hold that we should not use the blanket term Protestant either to club or smear people of different faiths

[Pelham]

“The NAZIS were big fans of Martin Luther. He was a big Jew hater.”

How do you reconcile your claim with this?:

“At the beginning of his career, Luther was apparently sympathetic to Jewish resistance to the Catholic Church. He wrote, early in his career:

‘The Jews are blood-relations of our Lord; if it were proper to boast of flesh and blood, the Jews belong more to Christ than we. I beg, therefore, my dear Papist, if you become tired of abusing me as a heretic, that you begin to revile me as a Jew.’”

[Jeff Chandler]

I am surprised that you didn’t know that Catholics believe in the Holy Trinity. And I didn’t realize that the term Protestant was an insult.

[Elsie]

I’m sure that whatever I come up with will be hand waved away as incorrect.

Only if it differs from what the Magisterium teachs...

[Elsie]

Amen!

[Elsie]

Very good explanation!!

[Elsie]

-- now between C and L there are very serious differences, especially in the matter of the Holy Eucharist -- Lutherans believe that the Holy Eucharist has the True Presence of Christ, while Calvinists (depending on which Calvinists of course) don't quite agree with that

And this 'christian' finds them both somewhat amplified.

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Why was a yearly meal of rememberance good enough for the Jews; and yet - for born again Christians - they seemingly have to be 'reminded' every time they darken the doors of a church?

Have NONE of you guys posting here ever partaken of a Seder?

Each of the items on the menu are explained as they related to Judism (and still do). Our church does this yearly; but we STILL fall back on 'tradition' at LEAST 4 times a year (if not more) of having COMMUNION.

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How does a little chunk of bread and a sip of wine (or grape juice) [or even WATER if you are a MORMON] equate to what we find in the NT??

1 Corinthians 11:34 (niv)
And when I come I will give further directions.

Ok Paul; what are they?

[Elsie]

Actually, we are trinitarian.

Of COURSE!!!

Badger, badger and badger

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Groundhogs are permitted if they are circumsized.

[Elsie]

‘The Jews are blood-relations of our Lord; if it were proper to boast of flesh and blood, the Jews belong more to Christ than we.

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Philippians 3:4-6 (niv)
If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

[Elsie]

And I didn’t realize that the term Protestant was an insult.

Oh; it gets MUCH worse from SOME religious organizations!!

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Questions put to Joseph Smith: "'Do you believe the Bible?' [Smith:]'If we do, we are the only people under heaven that does, for there are none of the religious sects of the day that do'. When asked 'Will everybody be damned, but Mormons'? [Smith replied] 'Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent, and work righteousness." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 119).

Joseph Smith: "for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible" (from Pearl of Great Price 1:12). "What is it that inspires professors of Christianity generally with a hope of salvation? It is that smooth, sophisticated influence of the devil, by which he deceives the whole world" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.270).

 

 

 

Brigham Young stated this repeatedly: "When the light came to me I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness" (Journal of Discourses 5:73); "The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God" (Journal of Discourses 8:171); "With a regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world" (Journal of Discourses 8:199); "And who is there that acknowledges [God's] hand? ...You may wander east, west, north, and south, and you cannot find it in any church or government on the earth, except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.24); "Should you ask why we differ from other Christians, as they are called, it is simply because they are not Christians as the New Testament defines Christianity" (Journal of Discourses 10:230).

 

 

 

Orson Pratt proclaimed: "Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the 'whore of Babylon' whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. Any person who shall be so corrupt as to receive a holy ordinance of the Gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless they repent" (The Seer, p. 255).

 

 

 

Orson Pratt also said: "This great apostasy commenced about the close of the first century of the Christian era, and it has been waxing worse and worse from then until now" (Journal of Discourses

, vol.18, p.44) and: "But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be ...But there has been a long apostasy, during which the nations have been cursed with apostate churches in great abundance" (Journal of Discourses , 18:172).

 

 

President John Taylor stated: "Christianity...is a perfect pack of nonsense...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century." (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.167); "Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom." (Journal of Discourses , 10:127).

 

 

 

James Talmage said: "A self-suggesting interpretation of history indicates that there has been a great departure from the way of salvation as laid down by the Savior, a universal apostasy from the Church of Christ". (A Study of the Articles of Faith, p.182).

 

 

 

President Joseph Fielding Smith said: "Doctrines were corrupted, authority lost, and a false order of religion took the place of the gospel of Jesus Christ, just as it had been the case in former dispensations, and the people were left in spiritual darkness." (Doctrines of Salvation, p.266). "For hundreds of years the world was wrapped in a veil of spiritual darkness, until there was not one fundamental truth belonging to the place of salvation ...Joseph Smith declared that in the year 1820 the Lord revealed to him that all the 'Christian' churches were in error, teaching for commandments the doctrines of men" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, p.282).

 

 

 

More recent statements by apostle Bruce McConkie are also very clear: "Apostasy was universal...And this darkness still prevails except among those who have come to a knowledge of the restored gospel" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol 3, p.265); "Thus the signs of the times include the prevailing apostate darkness in the sects of Christendom and in the religious world in general" (The Millennial Messiah, p.403); "a perverted Christianity holds sway among the so-called Christians of apostate Christendom" (Mormon Doctrine, p.132); "virtually all the millions of apostate Christendom have abased themselves before the mythical throne of a mythical Christ whom they vainly suppose to be a spirit essence who is incorporeal uncreated, immaterial and three-in-one with the Father and Holy Spirit" (Mormon Doctrine, p.269); "Gnosticism is one of the great pagan philosophies which antedated Christ and the Christian Era and which was later commingled with pure Christianity to form the apostate religion that has prevailed in the world since the early days of that era." (Mormon Doctrine, p.316).

 

 

 

President George Q. Cannon said: "After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, there were only two churches upon the earth. They were known respectively as the Church of the Lamb of God and Babylon. The various organizations which are called churches throughout Christendom, though differing in their creeds and organizations, have one common origin. They all belong to Babylon" (Gospel Truth, p.324).

 

 

President Wilford Woodruff stated: "the Gospel of modern Christendom shuts up the Lord, and stops all communication with Him. I want nothing to do with such a Gospel, I would rather prefer the Gospel of the dark ages, so called" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 2, p.196).

[Cronos]

I mistook you for another Jeff who is a United Church of God person. And the term can be an insult if it is a blanket term.

[Cronos]

I've gone for a Seder. however, my point is that if we get into a circle firing of blaming Catholics or Protestants for the Nazis (who were NOT Christians) or supporting them, we are idiots.

The Nazis were pagans who wanted to restore Germany to the Nordic religion.

[Jim Noble]

The problem of the Church 1933-1945 is a complex one, and the focus on Pius XII obscures more than it reveals.

The collapse of the Church in Europe in late modernity is undoubtedly related to her failure to wage vigorous spiritual warfare against the Satanic power that rose up in Germany in the 1930s.

This was not exactly the “fault” of the Pope, and the “Hitler’s pope” sobriquet is unfair and even a bit cruel. The hardest problem for any one of us is “what, under the circumstances, would YOU have done”?

However.

All Christians in Germany, France, the low countries, and the East faced the challenge of their lives when the Men in Black (wearing the skull and crossbones, no less!) arose to commit horrible atrocities and despite individual examples of heroism in the Evangelical and Catholic churches, most proved unequal to the task.

THIS is the actual problem of Christ’s church on Earth 1933-1945, and the focus on the Pope, though it is understandable given what Catholics believe about his vicariate, is not really explanatory.

[redgolum]

Yep!

Which is why a lot of us are here, and not in Germany.

[Iscool]

1) It is wrong to paint Hitler as a Catholic. Though he was baptized, he excommunicated himself, latae sententiae

Salvation constantly tells us that 'once a Catholic, always a Catholic'...So one of these is not true...Which one is not true??? Which one of you guys is wrong???

[metmom]

AMEN!!!!

Preach it, sister!!

Even if we are faithless, He is faithful. Something Catholics do not grasp. Otherwise, they wouldn’t think that it’s on again, off again salvation depending on what WE do.

[metmom]

Salvation constantly tells us that 'once a Catholic, always a Catholic'...So one of these is not true...Which one is not true??? Which one of you guys is wrong???

Something about baptism leaving an indelible mark on the soul, so I've heard.

Let me know if you get an answer.

[fso301]

But the problem for the Protestant churches in Germany stem historically from the 19th century in Prussia where the Prussian King who was a Calvinist ruling over largely Lutheran subjects forcibly united the two ("the Prussian union") -- now between C and L there are very serious differences, especially in the matter of the Holy Eucharist -- Lutherans believe that the Holy Eucharist has the True Presence of Christ, while Calvinists (depending on which Calvinists of course) don't quite agree with that

the net result was chaos and worse, government control that made the German unified Protestant churches into branches of the government

Interesting. I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for providing the background.

[Cronos]

Didn’t you once say you were a Catholic while mocking Baptists? And I remember you saying something about Unitarianism, modalism etc.