Catholic bishops in Germany have admitted to culpability in the rise of Nazi Germany and its instigation of World War II, according to a new report from Germany’s council of Catholic bishops detailed in The Sunday Times. “Inasmuch as the bishops did not oppose the war with a clear ‘no,’ and most of them bolstered [Germany’s] will to endure, they made themselves complicit in the war,” the 23-page document states. The report describes the church’s cooperation as Germany converted thousands of church properties into military hospitals, German nuns worked as nurses for their country’s army, and priests traveled to the frontlines of battle to provide spiritual guidance to soldiers. Pope Francis opened the archives of Pope Pius XII, pontiff from 1939 to 1958, to scholars on March 2 for the study of the church’s conduct during the WWII.
