Chapter Thirty-Three -Judging the Infamous Harlot

Through her  meddling in politics, the great harlot has brought untold sorrow to mankind. Consider, for example, the facts behind Hitler's  rise to power in Germany-ugly facts that some would like to expunge from the history books. In May 1924 the Nazi part held 32 seats in the German Reichstag.  By May 1928 these had dwindled to 12 seats.  However, the Great Depression engulfed the world in 1030; riding in its wake, the Nazis made a remarkable recovery, gaining 230 out of 608 seats in the German elections of July 1932. Soon after, former chancellor Franz von Papen, a Papal Knight, came to the Nazis' aid. According to historians, von Papen envisioned a new Holy Roman Empire. His own short tenure as chancellor had been a failure so now he hope to gain power through the Nazis. By January 1933, he had mustered support for Hitler from the industrial barons, and through wily intrigues he ensured that Hitler became German's chancellor on January  30, 1933. He himself was made vice-chancellor and was used by Hitler to win the support of Catholic sections of Germany. Within two months of gaining power, Hitler dissolved parliament, dispatched thousands of opposition leaders to concentration camps, and began and open campaign of oppressing the Jews.

On July 20, 1933, the Vatican's interest in the rising power of Nazism was displayed when Cardinal Pacelli (who later became Pope Pius XII) Signed a concordat in Rome between the Vatican and Nazi Germany. Von Papen signed the document as Hitler's representative, and Pacelli there conferred on von Papen the high papal decoration of the Grand Cross of the Order of Pius. In his book Satan in Top Hat,  Thor Koeves writes of this, stating:
The Concordat was a great victory for Hitler. It gave him the first moral support he had received from the outer world, and this from the most exalted source." The concordat required the Vatican to withdraw its support from Germany's Catholic Center Party, thus sanctioning  Hitler's one part "total state."  Further, its article 14 stated:  "The appointments for archbishops, bishops and the like will be issued only after the governor, installed by the Reich, has duly ascertained that no doubts exist with respect to general political considerations." By the end of 1933 (proclaimed a "Holy Year" by Pope Pius XI).  Vatican support had become a major factor in Hitler's push for world domination. 

Though a handful of priests and nuns protested Hitler's atrocities-and suffered  for it-the Vatican as well as the Catholic Church and its army of clergy gave either active or tacit support to the Germany tyranny, which they regarded  as a bulwark against the advance of world communism. Sitting pretty in the Vatican, Pope Pius XII let the Holocaust on the Jews and the cruel persecutions of Jehovah's Witnesses and other proceed uncriticized. It is ironical that Pope Paul II, on visiting Germany in May 1987, should glorify the anti-Nazi stand of one sincere priest.  What were the other thousands of the German clergy doing during Hitler's reign of terror?  A pastoral letter issued by the Germany Catholic  bishops in September 1939 at the outbreak of World War Ii provides enlightenment on this point. It reads in part:  "In this decisive hour we admonish our Catholic soldiers to do their duty in  obedience to the Fuehrer and to be ready to sacrifice their whole individuality.  We appeal to the Faithful to join in ardent prayers that Divine Providence may lead this war to blessed success."

Such Catholic diplomacy illustrates the kind of harlotry that religion has engaged in over the past 4,000 years in wooing the political State in order to gain power and advantage. Such religio-political  relationships have fostered warfare, persecutions, and human misery on a vast scale. How happy mankind can be that Jehovah's judgment upon the great harlot is at hand.  May it soon be executed!

Next time: Chapter Thirty-Three -Judging the Infamous Harlot -Sitting on Many Waters

From the book of Revelation