Essay on "Catholic Church Standing"

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Catholic Church standing as one of the most influential institutions in Europe during the first half of the twentieth century, it seems natural for its position toward Nazi anti-Semitism to have had a particular importance for affairs on the continent at the time. In spite of the Vatican's determination to put across its opposition toward the totalitarian regimes ruling over most of Europe during the period, its power was limited as a result of the growing influence that Hitler and Mussolini came to have. The Church's stance was related to imposing a Modus Vivendi approach, stressing the fact that it did not support Hitler and Mussolini and that it expected the two leaders to accept its perspective in regard to Nazi anti-Semitism.

Even though this matter is irrelevant in this situation, it is nonetheless very improbable for the millions of Jewish individuals killed during the Holocaust to have experienced such suffering if it were not for the Christian anti-Judaism that has dominated the European landscape for the last two millennia. However, it is certainly impossible for one to attribute the events happening during the Second World War to the existence of the Catholic Church.

It is difficult to determine the exact impact that the Catholic Church had on the Holocaust, as even with the fact that the institution can be considered responsible for saving a great deal of Jews from being murdered in Nazi death camps, it did not use its full power to interfere with Hitler's plans. Pope Pius XII acted courageously and without considering the risks he was exposing himself to when he struggled to have numerous Jewish individuals removed from the hands of the Nazis. The leader of the C

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atholic Church had an essential status in Europe, as he was one of the main official forces criticizing Nazi affairs and directly lobbying regarding the wrongness in anti-Semitism. Pope Pius XII was not only of the most influential European individuals rising against the Nazi regime's methods, as he was in certain moments the only individual courageous enough to sustain his position regarding how he was severely disturbed concerning the extreme form of anti-Semitism promoted by Hitler. Given that he was an unyielding force in fighting Nazi anti-Semitism, the Nazis were particularly concerned regarding his influence and the fact that he prevented the Nazi war machine from functioning at its full potential. "Pius' combination of diplomatic pressure, careful but sustained criticism while maintaining an essential Vatican neutrality in war-torn Europe, as well as direct action through his nuncios and the local Church where possible, saved what some have estimated as 860,000 Jewish lives" (Phayer).

There is much controversy regarding Pope Pius XII's opinion in regard to the Holocaust, as while some prefer to praise him as a result of the contributions he brought to Jewish people and to society as a whole, others are convinced that he did not act when he had the opportunity to do so and that numerous Jews have died as a result of the relationship that the leader of the Catholic Church had with Hitler (Roth & Rittner, 178). John Cornwell's book "Hitler's Pope" harshly condemns Pius for not having given sufficient attention to conditions in Europe during the Second World War. Cornwell insists that the pope had actually been a tool in the hands of Hitler and that it was his anti-Semite convictions that stood as a main factor in preventing him from getting actively engaged in fighting against the Nazis. In trying to support his accusations, Cornwell came up with a series of documents linking Pius to events in which the pope was reluctant to support Jewish people on account of their race. Most of the writer's accusations are however unfounded and it is obvious that it was his determination to damage Pius's image that fueled him in writing he book and not solid proof that would demonstrate that he was actually right in his campaign (Dalin 118).

In an attempt to motivate their collaboration with the Nazis, Catholics tried to highlight the fact that their intention was actually that of preventing a greater evil, as they believed that it would have virtually been impossible for them to prevent the destruction that was waiting to happen. In spite of the fact that he did not felt threatened by the Catholic Church, Hitler's "ideal solution was an agreement similar to the Lateran treaty in which the Catholics voluntarily abandoned independent political action" (Roth & Rittner, 192). In an attempt to do so, the German chancellor provided Catholics with the positions they longed for in Germany, in order for them to be pleased and to be reluctant to proceed with trying to oppose Hitler's plan of actions. Even with the fact that he was somewhat reluctant to become an ally of the Nazi government, Pius eventually accepted Hitler's offer, virtually ignoring the advices he received from German church leaders. In his determination to organize the Catholic Church better, Pius failed to see the coming threat represented by Hitler and the Nazi dictatorial regime (Roth & Rittner, 193).

In wanting to make a deal with Hitler, Pius' principal intention was to ensure that the Catholic Church would benefit in the long-term. The pope was concerned that Hitler would come to control the German Church if he did not intervene and made certain that only the pope would have the power to name bishops. Pius was to a certain degree aware of what was going to happen in Germany concerning Christians. "The persecution of the churches was the outcome of two of the most significant aspects of the Nazi system, its political nihilism and its ideological fanaticism" (Conway, 328). In wanting to impose their power over Germany, the Nazis knew that they had to destroy its traditions and practically every institution that seemed influential at the time and that was likely to interfere with politics. Hitler was primarily determined to have the church gradually lose influence because he did not appreciate Christianity's view regarding how people were all equal from God's perspective. Moreover, the German chancellor considered that Christianity was essentially a derivate of Jewish beliefs combined with the corruption present in the Catholic Church. A doctrine of equality was the very thing that Nazis did not want in their country. The Catholic Church was never in Hitler's plans concerning the future, even with the fact that Pius struggled to maintain a close relationship with Hitler and Nazi Germany in hope that he would protect the Catholic Church's future by doing so.

Cornwell further supported his beliefs that Pius was actually appreciative toward the Nazi regime by relating to the Catholic Church's desire to fight against the Bolsheviks, as they were considered one of the greatest threat to Catholicism and to Christianity as a whole. It is difficult to determine whether or not Pius did support the Nazi regime as its power grew, as what is certain is that the pope considered that he had to take immediate action in order for the Catholic Church to experience as little damage as possible from the overall state of affairs involving the greatest powers in the world at the time (Roth & Rittner, 194).

In spite of the pope's morality, his background and the background of the Catholic Church as a whole make it less surprising that he did not get engaged in saving Jewish people at first. "The pope's attitudes were partly culturally determined, partly a response to the history of Europe since the French Revolution, and partly a result of his own experience. There was little, if anything, in his culture that would have fostered a sympathetic view of the Jewish situation in the 1930s and 1940s" (Roth & Rittner, 195).

It is perfectly normal for numerous individuals to criticize Pius as a consequence of the fact that numerous Jewish individuals lost their lives during the Holocaust, given that he was among the only persons in Europe that could actually do something in order to reduce the number of people dying. His intervention in the Holocaust is largely ignored by his critics because they are unable to comprehend why he did so little, considering that he was apparently capable of saving much more lives. One of his main faults is represented by his dedication to the well-being of the Catholic Church. His obsession with preserving the church's influence stopped him from focusing on what was more important at the time. A person does not necessarily have to commit a crime in order to be considered a criminal, as the respective individual can very well remain indifferent to other crimes being committed in order for the rest of the world to consider him partly responsible for what happened (Levy, 549).

The Catholic Church went through great efforts in order to avoid a direct clash with Nazism, given that the pope and his followers considered that they would guarantee Christianity's safety by maintaining an apparent indifferent position in regard to the wrongdoing committed by Hitler's forces.… READ MORE

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Quoted Instructions for "Catholic Church Standing" Assignment:

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Reference sources must be books that can be accessed in the US and no .com websites permitted. Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) is a good internet source: as is The Vatican internet source at . Wikipedia is not allowed. Paper must be New Times Roman 12pt and in MLA format. Paper must be able to pass turnitin.com for originality.

Please below for topic choices. It does not matter which topic you choose, so long as it is one of those listed below. Any additional questions, let me know:.

Possible Topics with Resources found on the Internet:

*****¢ Describe and discuss the factors that contributed to Saint Augustine*****'s conversion, as recounted in his Confessions.

*****¢ Describe the stages of love in Bernard of Clairvaux in his On Loving God. Compare and contrast with your own understanding of love or that of any other author.

*****¢ Describe in detail what kinds of positive language God Thomas Aquinas notes in his Summa Theologiae (also spelled Summa Theologica), and comment on the value of the idea of analogy.

*****¢ Explain the different paths to God found in Bonaventure*****s The Soul*****s (or Mind*****s) Journey to God .

*****¢ Show how the dignity of the human person is at the heart of Catholic teaching on social justice in Pacem in Terris.

*****¢ Discuss John Paul II*****s criticisms of socialism and capitalism in his Centesimus Annus.

*****¢ Pope Benedict XVI criticizes consumerism (see Vatican website); what does he mean by this?

*****¢ Compare and contrast the positions of Stark*****s The Victory of Reason with Freeman*****s The Closing of the Western Mind concerning Christianity as help and or hindrance to the intellectual development of the West.

*****¢ Recount the Catholic Church*****s responses to Nazi anti-semitism.

Additional Possible Topics with Resources found in the Library:

*****¢ Discuss the meaning of mystery, especially as used by Karl Rahner (see Rahner*****'s Theological Investigations, vol. IV, pp. 37-47, 54-55, 71-73 or McCool*****'s A Rahner Reader, pp. 108-120).

*****¢ What does Augustine mean by saying the human being is an image of God? (See Augustine*****'s own writings, plus secondary sources.)

*****¢ Explain the meaning of the soul as image of God according to Bernard of Clairvaux? (See his own writings, plus secondary sources.)

*****¢ Describe the stages of love in Bernard of Clairvaux in his On Loving God, and the descriptions of love in Erich Fromm*****'s The Art of Loving; comment on the differences.

*****¢ What does Bonaventure mean by saying the human being is an image of God? (See Bonaventure*****'s own writings, plus secondary sources, especially by Ewert Cousins and E. Gilson.)

*****¢ Describe and discuss the factors that contributed to Augustine*****'s conversion in his Confessions.

*****¢ Explain what Bonaventure means when he speaks of God as self diffusiveness of the Good. (See E. Cousins and Bonaventure*****s own work.)

*****¢ Describe and discuss the factors that contributed to Thomas Merton*****'s conversion in The Seven Storey Mountain.

*****¢ Discuss the meaning of *****"anonymous Christian*****" according to Rahner (see Rahner*****'s Theological Investigations, vol. V & VI, and/or The Rahner Reader).

* Discuss the meaning of Christ for Teilhard de Chardin. (See his Christianity and Evolution.)

*****¢ How does Teilhard justify placing God/Christ in evolution?

*****¢ Discuss Teilhard*****s contribution to tensions between science and religion. (In addition to Teilhard*****s writing, see Impey, C. and C. Petry*****s Science and Theology from the University of Notre Dame Press.)

*****¢ Is chance compatible with the notion of Divine Providence? (See E. Johnson*****s *****Does God Play Dice? Divine Providence and Chance***** Theological Studies, 57 (1996), 3-18, and Haught, John*****s Science and Religion: from Conflict to Conversation (Paulist, 1995).

*****¢ Discuss the theory which sees Christianity as the fulfillment of non-Christian religions (see Knitter and Vatican II).

*****¢ What are the two types of suffering described by J. Dunne in his The Way of All the Earth?

*****¢ Discuss Panikkar*****'s The Trinity and the Religious Experience of Mankind. (In addition to this book see also the article on him in Karkkaine*****s Trinity and Religious Pluralism. Ashgate Publishing.)

*****¢ Discuss the factors contributing to the relativizing of religious statements as noted by Swidler in his Toward a Universal Theology of Religion.

*****¢ Discuss the positions on, or implications of, inter-religious dialog as described in Swidler*****'s Toward a Universal Theology of Religion.

*****¢ Apply the criteria of a just war from Catholic documents to the war in Iraq.

*****¢ Show how the dignity of the human person is at the heart of Catholic teaching on social justice in Pacem in Terris. (See Pacem in Terris and Hollenbach*****s Claims in Conflict.)

*****¢ Discuss Rahner*****'s understanding of revelation, and its applicability to non-Christian religions. (See his Foundations of Christian Faith and Dulles*****' Models of Revelation (Doubleday, 1983.)

*****¢ Discuss the meaning of revelation in the Documents of the Second Vatican Council (see original documents and commentaries).

*****¢ Discuss how the Bible is a norm for the Christian faith. (See G. Baum*****s New Horizons, pp. 35-50, and/or G. O*****Collins***** The Bible for Theology.)

*****¢ Explain what Dulles means by *****"the Symbolic Structure of Revelation*****" in the article of the same name in Theological Studies, vol. 41, pp. 51-73.

*****¢ Discuss the meaning of God as treated in the Old and New Testaments (see biblical dictionaries and K. Armstrong*****s A History of God).

*****¢ Discuss the meaning of the word of God as treated in the Old and New Testaments (see biblical dictionaries).

*****¢ How does historical awareness affect the interpretation of the Bible and church teaching? (See Brown*****'s Biblical Reflections on Crises Facing the Church, and the writings of B. Lonergan.)

*****¢ Why does M. Fox want to de-emphasize the historical quest for Jesus while emphasizing the cosmic Christ in The Coming of the Cosmic Christ?

*****¢ Was Jesus of Nazareth omniscient? (See Brown*****s Jesus God and Man; O*****'Collins***** Interpreting Jesus; Gutwenger*****s article in Who is Jesus of Nazareth; and The Rahner Reader.)

*****¢ Was Jesus an apocalyptic teacher? (See Schillebeeckx*****'s Jesus, or N. Perrin*****'s Rediscovering the Teaching of Jesus).

*****¢ How may a theologian justify referring to Jesus as an ethical liberator? (See O*****'Grady*****s

Models of Jesus, and perhaps Sobrino*****'s Christology at the Crossroads.)

*****¢ Discuss whether Christ is the symbol of the self, or the self a symbol of Christ. (See Jung*****'s Collected Works, vol. 9, part II, and vol. 17, ch. VII.)

*****¢ Why, according to H. Balthasar*****'s Prayer, is contemplation necessary?

*****¢ Compare and contrast the understandings of vocation according to Fowler (in Becoming Adult Becoming Christian) and Jung (in his Collected Works vol. 17, ch. VII).

*****¢ Describe the method(s) of inner healing found in Linns*****' Healing Life*****'s Hurts.

*****¢ Is Thomas Berry*****'s notion of *****"new story*****" a threat, challenge, or enhancement to Christianity (see his Dream of the Earth)?

*****¢ What is the neglected virtue that Matthew Fox wants to highlight for contemporary Christianity in his The Coming of the Cosmic Christ?

*****¢ Does Christianity have an answer to suffering according to Schillebeeckx*****'s Christ?

*****¢ How might one decide which theological models are better than others? (See McFague*****'s Metaphorical Theology.)

*****¢ Is God the Father a model or an idol according to Sallie McFague?

*****¢ Was Jesus a Revolutionary? (See Cullmann*****s Jesus and the Revolutionaries, and Nolan*****'s Jesus Before Christianity, or Boff*****'s Jesus Christ Liberator.)

*****¢ Discuss Thomas Merton*****s view of the roots of war.

*****¢ Show how Catholic Christianity contributed to the development of capitalism (see R. Stark*****˜s The Victory of Reason).

*****¢ What is Christian and Biblical fundamentalism? (See Kung*****s Fundamentalism and Ecumenical Challenge, and B. Lawrence*****s Defenders of God and/or Marty*****s Fundamentalisms Observed.)

*****¢ Show how Christianity, in the middle ages and beyond, both supported and retarded the development of western science and technology. (See Rodney Stark and Thomas Woods.)

Additional paper requirements/helpful hints:

Research: Research for the papers should follow the recommended primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are the *****"materials on a topic upon which subsequent interpretations or studies are based, anything from firsthand documents such as poems, diaries, court records, and interviews to research results generated by experiments, surveys, ethnographies, and so on.*****"

(Hairston, Maxine and Ruszkiewicz, John. The Scott Foresman Handbook for *****s (4th ed). New York: HarperCollins College Publishers, 1996, p. 547

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Documentation of Classical Literature: Citing Sources in Text.

The MLA Handbook for *****s (2003, section 6.4.8, p. 254), in its section titled *****Citing Literary and Religious Works,***** says the following:

*****When included in parenthetical references, the titles of the books of the Bible and of famous literary works are often abbreviated (1 Chron. 21.8, Rev. 21.3*****¦).*****

Notice that MLA format does not italicize the abbreviations for titles of the books of the Bible, but does italicize the abbreviations of the titles for classical literature. Note also that page numbers are not given, rather section and chapter numbers are given; these latter enable the reader to find the location of your source material in any edition or translation.

For classical works, including the Bible, please give chapter and section numbers. If you would like to add page numbers after chapter and section numbers, that is acceptable, but page numbers are not necessary. For classical literature accessed electronically give the URL, and if there are chapter and section numbers, please include those. If there are no chapter and section numbers, please submit paper copies of the sections of the material used.

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