From the link (bottom):"The concordat ... placed constraints on Catholics critical of the regime,..."
As posters challenge me, I am forced to learn of even more parallels with Obama. Note the following (I know, it is scary.):
"In early 1933 Hitler told Herman Rauschning that Bismarck had been stupid in starting a Kulturkampf and outlined his own strategy for dealing with the clergy which would based initially on a policy of toleration:
""We should trap the priests by their notorious greed and self indulgence. We shall thus be able to settle everything with them in perfect peace and harmony. I shall give them a few years reprieve. Why should we quarrel? They will swallow anything in order to keep their material advantages. Matters will never come to a head. They will recognise a firm will, and we need only show them once or twice who is the master. They will know which way the wind blows.[12]
My apologies for feeling compelled to present this in the interest of caution to us all. I actually hope someone proves to me that it is historically inaccurate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichskonkordat
Given the "one year" reprieve Obama has given the Church, does anyone share (misery loves company) the chilling feeling that comes from learning that Obama's tactics toward the Catholic Church today MAY be based on a study of Hitler's approach to the Church?
Hitler had to kill Catholic priests because they wouldn’t knuckle under; the popes (Pius XI & Pius XII) were openly critical of National Socialism, and had the German clergy read pronouncements to that effect.
In Italy, in return for recognition of the Italian state, the Church was given a role in public education. That probably plays no small role in why the Italians never targeted Jews (though the Germans did after Mussolini was deposed, and they were basically occupying Italy).