Relationship between Catholic Church and Nazi Regime Essay

Relationship between Catholic Church and Nazi Regime - Essay Example So, the idea of dechristianizing Germany was clearly evidenced when, in 1933, Hitler, through his Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels started exercising control over the Catholic Church by interfering with its youth groups, schools, cultural societies and even workers clubs. As the sole authority over the land, Nazi could not tolerate the existence of any other authority whose legitimacy had not been granted by the state. So, the church is one of such independent institutions, had to be fiercely fought. The dechristianization of Germany had to be done by openly subordinating the church and stripping it off the powers it earlier enjoyed. So, as this author recounts, Hitler had to seriously take the antichurch war without ever looking back. At one time, he decided to eliminate political Catholicism so as to make the church be under a full control of the state to the extent that it could no longer influence the political climate of Germany. This was effected by molesting, harassing and arresting a large number of church leaders and the clergy. This really created a lot of fear to the church and its followers. It was so sad that even the clergy on whom many people relied on for inspiration and guidance would now be indiscriminately arrested without any proper justification. As events unfolded, the Nazi regime later decided to take more stern action against the church. Kertzer says that the government dissolved the Catholic Church’s youth leagues maybe because it was viewed as a radical group that would give rise to dissents. Nonetheless, the state continued targeting the nuns, clergy and lay leaders who were arrested and charged with serious criminal offenses such as the smuggling of currency that came with harsh sentences.