Pacelli reports to Gasparri on the anti-Catholic character of the Nazi uprising in Munich; this is the earliest documented criticism of Nazism by Pacelli - Nov. 14, 1923

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Nov. 14, 1923 Pacelli reports to Gasparri on the anti-Catholic character of the Nazi uprising in Munich; this is the earliest documented criticism of Nazism by Pacelli.

English translation


 Nov. 14, 1923 Pacelli to Gasparri:

Re: About the anti-Catholic character of the nationalist uprising in Munich

Most Reverend Eminence,

The details of the nationalist uprising that disturbed the city of Munich in the past days (cf. encrypted cables Nos. 443, 444 and 445), are already known to Your Most Reverend Eminence from the Italian press; thus I have no need to repeat them in this respectful Report. On one point, however, already alluded to in encrypted cable No. 444, I believe it opportune to communicate to Your Eminence some further details, that is to say on the demonstrations of an anti-Catholic character that have accompanied the uprising itself, but which have not surprised those who have followed what is published in the organs of the radicals of the right, such as the Völkischer Beobachter and the Heimatland.

This character was revealed above all in the systematic agitation against the Catholic clergy, with which the followers of Hitler and Ludendorff, especially in speeches on the public streets, whipped up the population, thus exposing ecclesiastics to insults and mockeries. Their attacks, however, targeted in a special way the learned and zealous Cardinal Archbishop here, who, in a sermon he delivered in the Cathedral on November 4th and in his letter to the Reich Chancellor published by the Wolff Agency on November 7th, had reproved persecutions against the Hebrews. To this was added the unfounded and absurd rumor that was spread in the city, and probably tailor-made, that accused His Eminence of having produced a change of opinion in Mr. von Kahr, who, as is well known, while at the beginning in the Buergerbraeukeller had apparently, to back away from violence, adhered to the Hitler-Ludendorff coup d'etat, then declared himself against it. Thus it occurred that, during the disturbances of last Saturday afternoon, a numerous group of demonstrators went before the Archbishop's palace, crying "Nieder mit dem Kardinal!" (down with the Cardinal!). His Eminence was fortunately absent from Munich, having left that day to go consecrate a new church in a locality near Mühldorf; but, when he returned the following evening in his automobile, he was similarly greeted with a hostile demonstration.

These anti-Catholic sentiments were further manifested in the tumultuous meetings of students that took place the day before yesterday in the University, in which disturbing outside elements were also mixed with the selfsame students (not even from Bavaria), forcing the Rector in the end to close the school until further notice. Also in the aforesaid Atheneum, the object repeatedly in recent times of the charitable solicitude and generosity of the Holy Father in favor of the students, there was squawking against the Pope, against the Most Eminent Archbishop, against the Catholic Church, against the clergy, against the Jesuits, against the "White International," against Mr. von Kahr, who, although Protestant, was characterized by one of the speakers as an Honorary Member of the Society of Jesus (Ehrenmitglied of the Jesuits).

I enclose an article that appeared today in the Bayerischer Kurier, in which these deplorable events are described and denounced.

Humbly bowing to kiss the Sacred Purple ...

Source: www.Pacelli-Edition, Document No. 1091.


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