THE BISHOPS WHO SAID "HEIL HITLER ! "

From Our German Correspondent Much has happened after', and because of, the Austrian bishops' declaration in favour of the incorporation of Austria within the Reich. The German Bishops, who for five years have been defending the rights of the Church and the Christian faith against the dechristianisation campaign of neopagan National-Socialism found themselves suddenly attacked by the new argtunent:
"Look at the Austrian Bishops. They are the ' real ' Catholics and praise the Nazi movement while you are champions of political Catholicism.' Hasn't Cardinal Innitzer admitted now that Hitler, Biarekel and Rosenberg are right and that Cardinal Faulhaba.r and Bishop Galen are wrong?"
" Why Be More Catholic Than He ? "
In Czechoslovakia where the Henlein Panty, which is a somewhat camouflaged Nazi group, tries to monopolise the repres.e.ntation of the German minority, the right wing of the Christian-Social Party succeeded in obtaining the dissolution of that Catholic party and its amalgamation with Herr Henlein's group.
Without Cardinal Innitzer's declaration that would certainly not have happened.
But Senator Hilgenreiner declared: " Nobody need be more Catholic than the Archbishop of Vienna."
This argument was decisive.
" Without Sorrow " and " With Burning Sorrow"
The Austrian episcopal statement was in some places unhappily worded.
For instance: The Bishops say that they view the future unbesorgt (" Without Sorrow ") while the Pope's Encyclical on Germany starts by saying that he observes the German situation ,nit Brennender Sorge (" with burning sorrow '').
Under normal conditions such questions of words would not matter much (certainly the Austrian Bishops have not been these last weeks " without sorrow " and their unbesorgt is simply a polite exaggeration), but, as things are today, one shouldbe careful 'about such details.
In his first declaration after he had paid a visit to Herr Hitler, Cardinal Innitzer stated that he would give an "unreserved support " to the Nazi regime. Later he had to write in his " explanatory note " that such words have to be understood " under a complete reservation of the rights of God and the Church."
Under normal conditions such an obvious reservation need not be expressed.
But in dealing with a totalitarian State it is unfortunately necessary to insist on this point.
Reasons for Cardinal Innitzer's Attitude Last week Your Correspondent said that Cardinal Innitzer and the other Austrian Bishops simply wished to make a fresh start.
Among the population of Austria, rejoicing at Hitler's visits, almost everybody is at least nominally a Catholic, and the Bishops felt that it was essential for them not to lose contact with those masses.
They knew also that the danger of an open fight between the Nazi State and the Catholic Church would be infinitely greater in Austria than in Germany.
In Germany Catholics had been accustomed for hundreds of years to fight for their rights, even against the State, while Austrian Catholics never really learnt to light.
The Vatican's Attitude
From the beginning it was easy to see that the Holy See was by no means,favourably impressed by the Austrian Bishops' statement.
Eventually in the Osservatore Romano of April 2 the following official notice appeared :
" With regard to certain interpretations, which are often tendencious (and which come from unexpected sources) about the statement of the Austrian hierarchy, we arc authorised to declare, as a matter of fact, and without taking into consideration any political questions, that the statement was drafted and signed without the previous knowledge or the later approbation of the Holy See and under the exclusive responsibility of the Austrian hierarchy itself."