Reichskonkordat

The Reichskonkordat was a treaty between the Holy See and Nazi Germany, that guaranteed the rights of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. It was signed on 20 July 1933 by Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli (who later became Pope Pius XII) and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen on behalf of Pope Pius XI and President Paul von Hindenburg respectively. The Reichskonkordat is the most controversial of several concordats agreed between various states and the Vatican during the reign of Pope Pius XI and is frequently discussed in works that deal with the rise of Hitler in the early 1930s and the Holocaust. The concordat has been described as giving moral legitimacy to the Nazi regime soon after Hitler had acquired dictatorial powers, and placing constraints on Catholic critics of the regime, leading to a muted response by the Church to Nazi policies. From a Roman Catholic church perspective it has been argued that the concordat prevented even greater evils being unleashed against the Church. Furthermore, it has been pointed out that the Zionists concluded their own agreement with the Nazis just one month later in the Haavara Agreement. Though the German bishops were unenthusiastic, and the Allies felt it was inappropriate, Pope Pius XII argued to keep the concordat at the end of World War II and the treaty is still in force today.