"Economy Mark Set – 5"
"When the committee convened for public hearings on the bill this morning Chairman Vinson announced that a motion would be made to limit the originally proposed increase in combatant units to forty-one instead of 77, to be accomplished by the elimination of the destroyer part of the authorization in its entirety and substantial reductions in the cruiser and submarine categories.The only category not included in the proposed slashing is that of aircraft carrier authorizations, which will remain at three ships of an aggregate tonnage of 75,000.
By the way, we should take note of the fact that this Chairman Vinson is the same Carl Vinson whose namesake aircraft carrier (CVN-70) is today in charge of US relief operations in Haiti.
In honor of the days when the words "Democrat" and "patriot" were not yet oxymoronic.
Here at Pearl Harbor:
Yesterday:
"In Warsaw... The Nazi Gestapo executes 250 Jews in woods outside the city following the arrest of the Jewish-born Catholic resistance leader Andrzej Kott."
"Reich Cardinal Opposes Nazi Plan for Babies; Bertram Says War Does Not Excuse Adultery – 5"
Today:
"Kin of Boston Man Found by Pope in Warsaw; Other Agencies Long Unable to Aid Tailor – 3"
On the one hand -- Cardinal Bertram is held in high regard, even by some who are critical of Pope Pius XII.
"Bertram opposed what he called the immorality and "neopaganism" of the Nazi Party."In 1930 he refused a religious funeral for a well-known Nazi official on the grounds that the principles of National Socialism were incompatible with the Catholic faith.
"In a widely publicized statement, he criticized as a grave error the one-sided glorification of the Nordic race and the contempt for divine revelation that was increasingly taught throughout Germany. He warned against the ambiguity of the concept of "positive Christianity", a highly nationalistic religion that the Nazis were encouraging. Such a religion, he said, "for us Catholics cannot have a satisfactory meaning since everyone interprets it in the way he pleases".
"Because of this the Nazi authorities restricted his activity even further.
"In 1940 Cardinal Bertram condemned the propaganda and planning for Operation Lebensborn and Nazi vitalism and insemination plans as "immoral", saying that the Lebensborn programme was institutionalized "adultery".
"A few months after his death [July 6, 1945], Time Magazine wrote about Cardinal Bertram:
Died. Adolf Cardinal Bertram, 86, outspoken anti-Nazi Archbishop of Breslau and dean of the German Catholic hierarchy, whose tireless resistance to Hitler's "neopaganism" was climaxed last March in his defiance of orders to evacuate Breslau before the advancing Russians; presumably in Breslau. His death left the College of Cardinals with 40 members—fewest in 144 years.
"After the war, some historians claimed that Bertram scheduled a Requiem Mass upon Hitler's death. However, these claims were rejected by most scholars as mistaken..."
On the other hand -- consider the situation in Warsaw. The Church has found missing relations of a Boston man, when no other agency could help. But does it ever learn of and publicly condem the Nazis' recent murder of 250 Jews in Warsaw?