“Aside from the communists and Jews, Heydrich’s particular hatred in the 1930’s was devoted to the Catholic Church; and he pursued the persecution of Catholic clergymen with an enthusiasm that exceeded even that of Himmler. The Christian idea of marriage would ultimately have to be abandoned in favor of polygamy – allowing for the fertilization of more Aryan women – and a racially driven conception of human partnerships that would allow for divorce for the infertile and racially unfit.” - "Hitler’s Hangman: The Life of Heydrich" by Robert Gerwarth © 2011
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“Heydrich and other influential anti-Church hardliners such as Joseph Goebbels, Rudolf Hess, and Martin Bormann sought to undermine the Church’s position by linking individual priests with communism and pedophilia. Shortly after the seizure of power in Bavaria, for example, Heydrich moved against three priests who had expressed concern over the treatment of inmates in Dachau concentration camp. In late November, following an investigation, they admitted spreading atrocity stories and were arrested. Searches of their quarters turned up the inevitable Marxist literature and other evidence associating them with communism, all of which was duly publicized. Heydrich used the case publicly to paint a picture of a communist infiltrated priesthood and to argue for a political police force capable of fighting such a menace.” - "Hitler’s Hangman: The Life of Heydrich" by Robert Gerwarth © 2011
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“In 1935 the Nazi state staged a series of trials against members of various Catholic orders, accusing them of international money laundering and immoral – that is, homosexual and pedophile – practices.” - "Hitler’s Hangman: The Life of Heydrich" by Robert Gerwarth © 2011
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“The investigations of foreign currency offenses were systematically expanded in March 1935; both the Gestapo and the SD were heavily involved in searches of monasteries and confiscated documents that would serve as evidence in the subsequent trials. By the end of 1935, some seventy clerics had been convicted in thirty trials on the basis of this material. The alleged sexual offenses committed by Catholic clerics and order members were of even greater propagandistic use for the Nazi regime. These trials sought to destroy the reputation of the Catholic Church and primarily targeted priests, monks, lay brothers and nuns working in primary and secondary schools. A simultaneous press campaign launched by Joseph Goebbels sought to persuade parents not to expose their children to the likely risk of sexual abuse at religious schools. One notorious and widely publicized trial in 1936 concerned the Franciscans of the Rhineland town of Waldbreitbach, who were accused of systematically abusing the children placed in their trust. Adults and schoolchildren alike were encouraged to read the lurid accounts of abuse and sexual mayhem that were allegedly at the heart of Franciscan activity. All in all, 250 trials were undertaken against allegedly homosexual clergymen and order members, during the course of which over 200 Catholic order members were convicted.” - "Hitler’s Hangman: The Life of Heydrich" by Robert Gerwarth © 2011
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“The papal encyclical Mit brennender Sorge [‘with burning anxiety’] of March 1937in which Pope Pius XI expressed his deep concern about violations of the 1933 Church agreement by the Nazi authorities." - "Hitler’s Hangman: The Life of Heydrich" by Robert Gerwarth © 2011
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"Reich Propaganda Minister Goebbels also played his part. After the Encyclical, he intensified the publicity campaign against alleged sex scandals involving Catholic priests that had already begin in the middle of 1935. Fifteen monks were brought before the courts in November 1935 for offenses against the law on homosexuality in a home for the mentally ill in western Germany. They received severe prison sentences and the attention of endless column inches in the press. Other priests were soon being tried for alleged sexual offenses against minors in Catholic children’s homes and similar institutions. By May 1936 the press was reporting the trial in Koblenz of over 200 Franciscans for similar crimes.” - "The Third Reich in Power" by Richard J. Evans © 2005
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“…demanding of the Catholic Church ‘off with the mask’, more than hinting that homosexuality and pedophilia were epidemic in the Church as a whole, and not nearly in isolated instances.” - "The Third Reich in Power" by Richard J. Evans © 2005
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“Particularly offensive, declared the press, was the fact that the Church stood behind the accused and treated them as martyrs. As more trials followed, the Propaganda Ministry built up a steady campaign to portray the Church as sexually corrupt and unworthy of being entrusted with the education of the young.” - "The Third Reich in Power" by Richard J. Evans © 2005
