The 1933 Concordat with Germany

The history of the Holy See’s relations with the Nazi regime is one of the most controversial topics in the entire history of the Catholic Church. Today in 1933 marks the signing of a Concordat with the new German government under Hitler. Throughout its long history, the Vatican has never shied away from establishing diplomatic relationships with any country wherever the interests of the Church are concerned. That’s why the Holy See has established formal diplomatic relations with non-Catholic regimes, with countries that were predominantly Protestant, with Islamic nations, with Israel. It’s even attempted to regularize relations with anti-Catholic regimes like the French revolutionary government and with Communist Russia. In 1933, the Holy See was concerned with seeing that rights and the interests of the Church were protected under this new German regime. It’s pretty clear that Pope Pius XI had increasing misgivings about the nature of the Hitler regime from the start, and that they grew as time went on. By the time of his death in 1939, he was planning to issue an encyclical condemning Nazi race theories. For the text of the Concordat click here.