The Bishop Who Defied Hitler

Today marks the death of a German Bishop who spoke out against the Nazi regime, Cardinal Clemens August von Galen (1878-1946). Born to an aristocratic family in Oldenburg, he studied for the Diocese of Münster and was ordained in 1904. As a young parish priest he was noted for his care of the poor and outcasts. In 1933, Father von Galen was named Bishop of Münster. His episcopal motto was Nec laudibus, nec timore (“Neither praise nor threats will distance me from God”), and he meant it. One of his first pastoral letters attacked the “neo paganismof the National Socialist ideology.” In 1937, Pope Pius XI consulted with him before publishing the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge. It was widely circulated by Bishop von Galen, notwithstanding Nazi opposition. In the summer of 1941, in answer to unwarranted attacks by the National Socialists, the “Lion of Münster” delivered three admonitory sermons against the situation in Germany under the Nazis. Von Galen believed that as a bishop, it was his duty to speak clearly and plainly about what was happening: this was not “merely a Catholic concern about which I speak to you publicly today, but a Christian, yes a human and national, a religious matter.” He spoke out against the State confiscation of Church property and programmatic euthanasia. The strength of these speeches and the unshakable fidelity of Münster’s Catholics embarrassed the Nazi regime, but von Galen’s popularity may have saved him. They allowed him free speech without any censorship. The sermons were reproduced and sent all over Germany to families, and to German soldiers on the front. After the war Pope Pius XII named him a Cardinal. He was beatified in 2005 by Pope Benedict XVI.