Now–editorial Notes

A German Court has made the following declaration: “The National Socialist government takes its stand on the ground of positive Christianity. No German government ever before has taken the Christian sects so securely under its protection.”

At about the same time Pope Pius has declared that Nazi Germany is drifting “back into paganism.”

An official spokesman for the Nazi government is reported as having said:

“Our war against the Center (Catholic) party is a political one, but we are not on the warpath against Catholicism, Protestantism or the Jewish faith. We do not make any distinctions between these religions, especially between the Evangelical and the Catholic Church. We are for positive Christianity.”

What the German government regards as “positive Christianity” is branded by Pope Pius as “paganism.”

In this connection we recall the remarkable declaration made by Pope Benedict XV, predecessor of the present Pope, with regard to anti-Semitism.

The former Papal Secretary of State, Cardinal Gasparri, in behalf of the Pope, wrote as follows:

“As the head of the Catholic Church, which, faithful to its divine doctrine and to its glorious traditions, considers all men as brethren and teaches them to love one another, he will not cease to inculcate the observance among individuals as among nations the principles of human rights, and to reprove every violation of them. This right should be observed and respected in relation to the children of Israel as it should be to all men, for it would not conform to justice and to religion to derogate there from solely because of a difference of religious faith.”

This is positive Christianity. Hitlerism is not merely a return to paganism. It is a mockery and a repudiation of all that is lofty in Christianity.

The official spokesman says that the Hitler government is not on the warpath against the Jewish faith. All that the Hitler government with its “positive Christianity” is doing to the Jews is to hound, humiliate, persecute and pillory them.