1937-03-14 · Vatican City (distributed across Germany)
Mit Brennender Sorge: The Church Against Nazism
In March 1937, Pope Pius XI issued Mit Brennender Sorge ('With Burning Concern'), an encyclical smuggled into Germany and read from Catholic pulpits on Palm Sunday, condemning Nazi racial ideology and the German government's systematic violations of its concordat with the Church.
The Vatican had signed a concordat with Hitler's government in 1933, hoping to protect Catholic institutions in Germany. By 1937, it was clear the Nazis had no intention of honoring the agreement. Catholic schools were being closed. Youth organizations were suppressed. Priests were arrested on fabricated charges. Nazi ideology, with its worship of race, blood, and the state, was being presented as a substitute religion. Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber of Munich drafted much of the text. Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the Vatican Secretary of State (later Pope Pius XII), helped shape it. The encyclical was written in German rather than the usual Latin — a deliberate choice so that ordinary Germans could understand it. It was smuggled into the country, printed secretly, and distributed to parishes. On Palm Sunday, March 21, 1937, it was read from Catholic pulpits across Germany before the Gestapo could intervene. The encyclical did not mention Hitler or the Nazi Party by name, but its meaning was unmistakable. It condemned the deification of race and nation. It rejected any notion that morality could be based on blood or ethnicity rather than divine law. It accused the German government of bad faith and systematic hostility toward the Church. The Nazi response was swift and furious. Presses that had printed the encyclical were seized. Retaliatory measures against Catholic institutions intensified. But the document had been read. It was the strongest public statement any major institution made against Nazi ideology before the war, and it drew a clear line: you cannot be a faithful Catholic and a faithful Nazi at the same time.
Why it matters
Represented the most forceful institutional condemnation of Nazi racial ideology before World War II, smuggled into Germany and read from thousands of Catholic pulpits on Palm Sunday 1937, drawing a clear line between Catholic faith and Nazi ideology.
What Happened
By 1937, the Nazis were systematically violating their concordat with the Vatican, closing Catholic schools, arresting priests, and promoting racial ideology as a substitute religion. Pope Pius XI issued Mit Brennender Sorge, written in German rather than Latin, smuggled into the country, and read from Catholic pulpits on Palm Sunday before the Gestapo could stop it. The encyclical condemned the worship of race and nation and accused the German government of betraying its agreements.
Why It Still Matters
Mit Brennender Sorge showed the Church willing to confront a totalitarian state at real cost. The distinction it drew between legitimate national feeling and the idolatry of race remains directly relevant. It also raises harder questions — about whether the Church should have spoken earlier, more forcefully, and by name — that Catholics are still reckoning with honestly.