Very true but look at "Christian" churches today. The church Obama networked at and that of say Jerry Falwell are like night and day but to someone of another faith both are seen as Christian.
The Paulist Center of Boston where Sen. John Kerry shows up for photo op's with Father Frank D. Desiderio during political campaigns is a completely different animal from that of Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York desires. Again, to a person of another faith, the two are seen as Catholic Christians.
Similarly, the German church; Catholic and Protestant was all over the socio-political map.
Another word for "neutral" is "collaborative"
True but such position can stem from sympathy, or intimidation. Both were at hand.
Furthermore, church history during times of persecution is that Clergy are the first targets of the persecutors. Knowing that at least one person sitting in a pew was an informant, a pastor had to choose his words carefully lest the flock suddenly lose it's shepherd.
Nor is there evidence that von Preysing or any other German Catholic official ever spoke out publicly against the Holocaust.
What Rabbis ever spoke publicly about the treatment of Gypsies, or of euthanasia?
Did the German Catholic clergy ever speak publicly about the slaughter of Catholics in German occupied Poland? If they did, what German publication would have published such statement?
The Holocaust as defined at Wanssee began in 1942. By that time, the clergy of Obama and John Kerryesque congregations were arguably in greater proportion since those clergy who actively opposed the Nazis during the prior 10 years had been, murdered, stripped of office, forbidden to preach, thrown in concentration camps, or otherwise intimidated into silence.
Nor did the Pope, for that matter, even though (or more likely, because) the numbers of clergy arrested and held was many thousands, of whom about three thousand died in Nazi hands:
According to the latest research conducted by W. Jacewicz and J. WoS in the years 1939-1945, 2,801 clergy lost their lives.
Among them were:
In 1999 Pope John Paul II beatified 108 of those killed as "Blessed Polish Martyrs".
Those include:
Again, my point here is: even if the Church were to speak publicly about the Holocaust, you might expect it to begin by condemning the murder of its own clergy.
But it did not.
And that is the context for any discussion of allegations about "Hitler's Pope".