Dr. Matthew
Miceli, M.D.
wrote:
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Hello,
- If the Church understands the mind of God and is His representative, how is it that
She signed a concordat with Adolf Hitler in 1933?
If Hitler isn't Satan, he's his first cousin.
God would have not signed such a document.
Thanks,
Matt
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If the Church understands the mind of God, why
did the Pope sign a concordat with Adolf Hitler? }
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Mary
Ann replied:
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Hi Matt,
The Church does not understand the mind of God, and has never claimed
to do so. That is blasphemy. The Bible itself says no one knows the
mind of God. The Church only knows the Revelation that was given
by Christ to the Apostles, and the law of nature that is given to
all men.
Any dealing with Hitler would be no different than the U.S.
dealings with Hitler prior to war.
He was the head of the German
state and governments had to deal with him, just as they have had
to deal with Mao, Stalin, Gorbachev, Castro, Chavez,
Kim Jong Il and Nero. The Vatican must deal with evil
powers, both as a Church and as a State, in order to secure rights
for Christians as much as She is able.
Mary Ann
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Eric
replied:
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Matt,
Regardless of the merits of the concordat, the Pope's
infallibility — and where he would in a sense represent
God — is limited to faith and morals under very specific
circumstances. No one guarantees that the Pope (or the
Vatican) will always do the right thing in other spheres,
particularly the political sphere.
In other words, there
is nothing contradictory about saying that the Holy See
was wrong to sign a given concordat, and maintaining that
the Pope is infallible when he speaks solemnly on matters
of faith and morals. One can just as freely say that
the Pope was wrong to quote Manuel Paleologos in his
speech at Regensburg University.
As for the concordat, it's easy to pontificate from
our secure post-war positions about what people should
and should not have done. It was quite different to actually
be there. Moreover, there is nothing wrong with making
a deal with an evil country. There is no moral prohibition
against doing so, if one is not compelled by the agreement
to act immorally. The U.S. made treaties with Russia;
there was nothing wrong with that. You claim that God
would not do such a thing, but God made a deal with Satan
in the book of Job. Unfortunately, I only vaguely recall
the specifics of this concordat (perhaps my colleagues
can assist me), but if I do recall correctly, the Holy
See was stuck between a rock and a hard place and had
no choice. It wasn't like they wanted to deal with Hitler;
they were forced into it.
Hope this helps,
Eric Ewanco
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