"Lion of Münster" Beatified

The Jerusalem Post has a report on the beatification ceremony in Rome for Clemens August von Galen, the German Bishop known as the Lion of Muenster for his forceful opposition to the Nazi practice of euthanasia:

Von Galen, who joins the Church's list of the "blessed" through his beatification, dedicated himself to "defending the rights of God, of the Church, of man, which the national socialist (Nazi) regime violated in a grave and systematic way, in the name of an aberrant, neo-pagan ideology," Benedict said.

Later, addressing pilgrims in St. Peter's Square, Benedict praised the bishop for "protecting the Jews and the weakest persons, which the regime considered garbage to eliminate."

Von Galen's sermons against the Gestapo make for powerful reading, even today. You can read an English translation of a sermon he delivered on July 13, 1941 here.  Although the Nazis did not dare arrest von Galen, 31 priests were arrested in his place and sent to concentration camps (10 perished there). 

While there is no denying von Galen's courage as displayed in his homilies, there are still some nagging questions about him. Did he really "protect the Jews" as stated by Pope Benedict XVI?  He was silent about the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. According to taz, von Galen spoke about "degenerate Jews" in a sermon of 1940:

Was ihn zudem bis heute umstritten macht, ist sein Schweigen zu der Verfolgung der Juden. Dies dürfte auch darin begründet gewesen sein, dass Galen selbst in antisemitischen Vorurteilen befangen war. So sprach er in einem Hirtenwort noch 1940 vom "entarteten Judentum".

And this week the neo-fascist Junge Freiheit spills a great deal of ink praising the "patriot" von Galen for his support of the invasion of the Soviet Union, his contempt for the allied occupation forces in Germany after the war, and his hatred of the Weimar Republic (Junge Freiheit states that Nazism and Weimar were the two sides of the "Modern Experience").

So clearly the Lion of Muenster was a complex individual who must be viewed in the context of his time and his church. I think the canonization process will unveil even more details about von Galen and the role of the Roman Catholic Church during the NS-era. 

Comments

[guile]

nice, cozy place you got here :)..