SIR – In his article on Pius XII (Cover story, March 10), Fr Leo Chamberlain comments that my book Hitler’s Pope received warm reviews in the “liberal press”, as opposed to harsh reviews from knowledgeable experts. In fact, the book received much praise from academic specialists on the period, including Professor Owen Chadwick, Professor Paul Preston, Professor Denis Mack Smith and Professor Saul Friedländer.
He alleges that I translated inaccurately from a “long letter” written by the then Pacelli in 1919. The translation of the text of the letter was made by a professional translator, later double-checked by two more professionals – and found to be accurate.
Fr Chamberlain is of the opinion that the Reichskonkordat – the international treaty negotiated by Pacelli and Hitler in the summer of 1933 – was simply an attempt to protect the Church from the Nazi regime. Yet the terms agreed to the withdrawal of German Catholics from all social and political action. It depended on the abolition of the Catholic Centre Party, the last democratic party left in Germany; but only after the party had voted for the Enabling Act that gave Hitler his dictatorship.
The consequences of the concordat were the demoralisation of Catholic opposition in Germany; the scandalising of German youth; and the crediting of the Nazi regime in the eyes of the world. For this reason, and no other, I felt, and still feel, that the title of the book is justified.
Yours faithfully,
John Cornwell
By email
SIR – I am writing in reply to Matthew Schmitz’s article, “A beautiful Church for the poor” (Cover story, February 24).
Without intending to touch on his principal thesis, I would like to comment on his remarks about JF Powers, whom I am proud to say I knew not only in a general sense but well enough that he cooked dinner for me in his home just off the campus of St John’s University, where I was teaching at the time.
Mr Schmitz is quite correct in saying that Mr Powers sat exactly in the middle of the balcony in the enormous Abbey Church at St John’s. And he is correct in saying that he sat there because, from that position, he could understand nothing that was being said, through some quirk in the building’s acoustics. Having sat in his seat to test this myself, I can attest that the acoustical deficit which took him to that spot is perfectly real. You can see the speaker but not understand a single word.
However, he sat there not from distaste over the post-Vatican II liturgy itself, but because he, the most careful of wordsmiths, disliked homilies with a particular intensity. Not necessarily because he disagreed with what the monks/priests were saying, for he counted many of them as his very dear friends, but because he disliked the imprecise and often casual use of language.
Yours faithfully,
Canon David Cotter
Holy Family, Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire
SIR – Let us hope that Eamon Duffy will comply with Jack Scarisbrick’s suggestion that he write a history of Catholic England from, say, the late 1400s to the restoration of the hierarchy in 1850 – made at the end of Scarisbrick’s review of Duffy’s Reformation Divided (March 3).
Yet it was Professor Scarisbrick’s own book, The Reformation and the English People (1984), that first aroused my interest in this subject. His theme was that, on the whole, English people did not want the Reformation, and most of them were slow to accept it.
There was, moreover, not much evidence of a rising groundswell of lay discontent with the old order, as some historians claimed. On the contrary, thousands of wills survive from the first half of the 16th century which demonstrate that, up to the very moment when the traditional medieval religious institutions were swept away, lay folk from every walk of life were still giving them gifts either of money or in kind: money for repairs and new buildings, church furnishings, organs, clocks and bells; and gifts in kind such as livestock, timber, crops, malt, fish, salt, stone, jewels and silver plate.
Other interesting chapters followed: for example, on the lay fraternities and the dissolution of the monasteries. Eagerness to learn more about this absorbing subject led me to Professor Duffy’s The Stripping of the Altars (1992) and then to his other works. None of his fellow historians can even approach his talent for bringing their discipline to life.
So, Professor Duffy, do please write that book.
Yours faithfully,
Kevin Heneghan
St Helens, Lancashire
SIR – As Christians, we are all called to unity and it is therefore sad that William Cash (Axe Yard, March 3) and others who reason like him should rejoice in the brutal decision of the UK Government to withdraw from the European Union.
The movement for the unity of Europe – a truly Christian objective – designed to put behind us centuries of bloodshed and war has been probably the most remarkable and successful development in European history for centuries, creating a space for common citizenship where cooperation and collaboration, which transform relationships, have replaced or mitigated the pursuit of purely national interests among the member states.
This process has also, of course, been facilitated by the economic development of the world whereby in so many areas, the individual nation state can no longer be the sole arbiter of its own policies. However, whatever the economic consequences of Brexit might be, its impact on the prosperity of the UK and the countries comprising it, the re-establishment of national boundaries between the UK and the other 27 member states of the EU whose citizens will once again become “foreigners” is a matter of profound regret for Christians who believe, like Pope Francis, in building bridges not walls.
Yours faithfully,
David Quinn
Paris
SIR – Pastor Iuventus (January 20) speaks of the terminal decline of the Church in France and of the collapse of vocations elsewhere. We also hear in our bidding prayers, week after week, prayers for more vocations.
I cannot believe that the Good Lord can see this situation and do nothing about it. I feel sure that we are being blessed with vocations to the priesthood and the religious life. The problem is that our young people are not recognising their calls to serve God in this way.
So we need to pray that those blessed with vocations will recognise and accept them and aim to bring them to fruition.
Yours faithfully,
BF Carden
Epping, Essex
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.