"Mit Brennender Sorge", the 1937 papal encyclica condemning the Nazi ideology. So, let's quote some Wikipedia:

it was Pacelli who added [...] the following passage:
"Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the state, or a particular form of state, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community—however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things—whoever raises these notions above their standard value and raises them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God."

Release

The encyclical was written in German and not the usual Latin of official Catholic Church documents. Because of government restrictions, the nuncio in Berlin, Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, had the encyclical distributed by courier. There was no pre-announcement of the encyclical, and its distribution was kept secret in an attempt to ensure the unhindered public reading of its contents in all the Catholic churches of Germany. Printers close to the church offered their services and produced an estimated 300,000 copies, which however was still insufficient. Additional copies were therefore created by hand and using typewriters. After its clandestine distribution, many congregations hid the document in their tabernacles for protection. It was read from the pulpits of German Catholic parishes on Palm Sunday 1937.

Nazi response

The (censored) German newspapers did not mention the encyclical at all; the offices of every German diocese were visited the next day by the Gestapo and all extant copies were seized. Every publishing company that had printed it was closed and sealed, diocesan newspapers were all proscribed and limits imposed on the paper available for Church purposes. Catholic flags were prohibited at religious ceremonies and towns with religious names (Heiligenstadt, etc) were renamed.

Cont...

.../Cont.

Frank J. Coppa asserts that the encyclical was viewed by the Nazis as "a call to battle against the Reich" and that Hitler was furious and "vowed revenge against the Church". Hitler wrote that “I shall open such a campaign against them in press, radio and cinema so that they won’t know what hit them …. Let us have no martyrs among the Catholic priests, it is more practical to show they are criminals.”

Thomas Bokenkotter writes that "the Nazis were infuriated, and in retaliation closed and sealed all the presses that had printed it and took numerous vindictive measures against the Church, including staging a long series of immorality trials of the Catholic clergy."

According to John Vidmar, Nazi reprisals against the Church in Germany followed thereafter, including "staged prosecutions of monks for homosexuality, with the maximum of publicity". 170 Franciscans were arrested in Koblenz and tried for “corrupting youth” in a secret trial, with numerous allegations of priestly debauchery appearing in the Nazi controlled press, while a film produced for the Hitler Youth showed priests dancing in a brothel.

I just saw this article and, it must be God working in mysterious ways, because, only this morning, I wrote a post about the Catholic Church and some of its sinners who seem to be more common than its saints.

Check it out if you have time!

http://www.dangerouscreation.com

Wow, David G. You must be proud. I do ask, though, when you will include some level of philosophy in your 'controversial, philosophical blog'. It could have some potential if you did.

Sometimes it was the other way around, Constance.

>>...towns with religious names (Heiligenstadt, etc) were renamed.<<

When Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, the Karl Marx-Hof complex in Vienna was renamed Heiligenstädter Hof. It was only allowed to reinstate the original name after the war.

Go figure, eh.

But that obviously wasn't the one you have in mind, was it. For the sake of accuracy, could you tell us what was the new name of your Heiligenstadt?

Because I'm sure that you don't just make these things up.

Do you?

"Mit Brennender Sorge" was indeed a historically fascinating document. In its original form, it was originally intended to define Naziism as heretical - which, given the religion of the vast majority of Nazis, would have been pretty powerful, I think you would agree.

In the end, it was a watered-down political document, containing all the usual political compromises. The major omission being, of course, that it did not mention the Jews.

Odd, that, don't you think?

Any dictatorial regime would have suppressed such a document. With so many Catholics in their rank-and-file, the Nazis could hardly have publicized it, could they? But I suspect they knew that it wouldn't have a great deal of impact on the attitude of the catholic citizenry.

And, as history shows, it did not. But at least it gave the papacy a fig-leaf of respectability against accusations of collaboration.