Some of our more secular friends are skeptical about the significance I give to the Russian Orthodox Patriarch’s benediction upon Putin’s atrocities.  They believe that Russians are secular, if not outright atheist after so many years of Soviet domination, and that undermining Putin’s pretensions to moral and spiritual legitimacy would not be consequential.

However, secret Vatican records just lately released show that even Hitler, an aggressively secular leader, cared about coopting, at least, the Pope.

Hitler at the Reichstag, public domain via Flickr

Per David Kertzer, writing in The Atlantic, May 31:

“In 1937, Pius XI issued an encyclical that condemned the Nazi government for its persecution of the Church and its championing of a pagan ideology. Hitler was irate. A year later, when Hitler visited Rome, Pius XI abandoned the city for Castel Gandolfo, his summer retreat in the Alban Hills. In remarks that infuriated Benito Mussolini, Italy’s ruler and Hitler’s host, the pope said he could not abide the glorification of the swastika, which he termed a “cross that is not the cross of Christ.”

“Pius XI died in early 1939, much to Hitler’s and Mussolini’s relief. Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, who had been the secretary of state, was elected pope, taking the name Pius XII. Hitler now saw a chance to improve relations with the Vatican, or in any case to keep the new pope from openly criticizing his regime.

“Pius XII’s attempt, through secret meetings with an intermediary trusted by Hitler, to negotiate a rapprochement with Hitler got right down to brass tacks:

“Upon finishing the reading, the pope said, ‘I have been very considerate, and the Reich Chancellor’s [Hitler’s] reply was very kind. But the situation has since deteriorated.” By way of example, he cited the closing of Catholic schools and seminaries in the Third Reich, the publication of books attacking the Church and the papacy, and the slashing of state funds benefiting the Church in Austria. He told the prince that he was eager to reach an agreement with Hitler and was ready to compromise insofar as his conscience allowed, “but for that to happen, there must before anything else be a truce … I am certain that if peace between Church and state is restored, everyone will be pleased. The German people are united in their love for the Fatherland. Once we have peace, the Catholics will be loyal, more than anyone else.’

“Von Hessen explained that the National Socialists were divided into pro-Church and anti-Church factions that were “bitterly opposed to each other.” If the Catholic clergy would agree to confine itself to Church matters and stay out of politics, the pro-Church faction could prevail.

“The Church, replied the pope, had no interest in involving itself in partisan politics. “Look at Italy. Here too there is an authoritarian government. And yet the Church can take care of the religious education of the young … No one here is anti-German. We love Germany. We are pleased if Germany is great and powerful.”

Pius XII’s efforts to seek more favorable treatment for the Church came to naught. Hitler was preoccupied with perpetrating greater evils.

“As the head of a large international organization, his overriding aim in negotiations with Hitler’s emissary was protecting the institutional resources and prerogatives of the Roman Catholic Church in the Third Reich. If the only goal was to protect the welfare of the institutional Church, his efforts could well be judged a success. But for those who see the papacy as a position of great moral leadership, the revelations of Pius XII’s secret negotiations with Hitler must come as a sharp disappointment. As the war years wore on, in all their horror, Pius XII came under great pressure to denounce Hitler’s regime and its ongoing attempt to exterminate Europe’s Jews. He would resist until the end.”

That said, the distress Hitler felt from Pope Pius the XI’s disapproval and the gestures by Hitler to placate Pope Pius XII were real. They hold a vital lesson for us.

Spiritual Justice Warfare is powerful.

It was powerful against the greatest tyrant of the modern era, Adolph Hitler.

It has power over Putin.

Glory to Ukraine.