Behind the Dictators A Factual Analysis of the Relationship of Nazi-Fascism and Roman Catholicism by L. H. LEHMANN
Contents
Leo Herbert Lehmann (1895-1950) was an Irish author, editor, and director of a Protestant ministry, Christ’s Mission in New York. He was an accomplished priest in the Roman Catholic Church who later in life converted to Protestantism and served as the editor of The Converted Catholic Magazine. He authored magazine articles, books and pamphlets, condemning the programs and activities of the Roman Catholic Church.(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Herbert_Lehmann
1942 Second, enlarged edition.. April, 1944 Third printing, March, 1945
CHAPTER I. JESUITS, JEWS AND FREEMASONS
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to understand fully what has been taking place in the world for the past twenty-five years unless we are able to grasp the underlying significance of what appears on the surface. It is necessary to penetrate behind the scenes of day-today happenings and examine thoroughly the active forces and planned objectives which are responsible for all that has come to pass so quickly in the past few years.
The 19th century left us deplorably weak in true knowledge of the history of State-Church conflicts. The facts of human development since the Reformation have become so inextricably tangled, that we have ceased to try to unravel them. We content ourselves in America with a mere superficial knowledge of events, and the conclusions arrived at, far from helping us to get at the real truth, only drive us farther away from an understanding of the real meaning of these events. Too much emphasis has been placed upon the mere economic aspect of the world-situation. The ideological and theoretical origins of Nazi-Fascism, as a consequence, have been almost entirely overlooked. Research is necessary to show where social, political and religious conflicts cross one another. There is abundance of incontestable proof that the forces of religion, as represented by the Catholic Church, have succeeded in dominating the political and í field, and that there exists a close bond between them and the origins, methods and objectives of the whole Nazi-Fascist movement in Europe. Furthermore, this domination has already spread to America. History proves that in every attempt made during the past half century against the liberal progress of mankind, the Jesuit Order, as the leader of Catholic action, has played a decisive role. We can go even so far as to state that Nazi-Fascism had its origin in the Society of Jesus, and that, like other movements in the past analogous to Fascism today, it was planned to serve the traditional aims of the disciples of Ignatius Loyola.
As long as this reverse side of the conspiracy against democratic liberalism goes undetected, Fascism will survive. The defenders of democratic ideology will not be victorious until they come out openly against their real enemy—the Knights of the Black Crusade.
The Jesuits were once irrevocably expelled from the nations of Europe, and from the Catholic Church itself, by Pope Clement XIV in 1773, and the only refuge they could find during their forty years of banishment was with the impious Catherine of Russia. Sworn to obey and defend the pope in all matters, they were hard put to it (even as Jesuits) to find a way out of the dilemma of being proteges of a monarch who thumbed her nose at the pope— in order to protect them from his wrath. Not to be outdone, the Jesuits politely and diplomatically protested to Catherine for thus disobeying the pope. And having thereby satisfied the requirements of their oath, they proceeded with a clear conscience to accept her hospitality. The truth of the matter is, that the Jesuits are not so much sworn to protect any individual pope as such, but rather the institution of the Papacy. By this Jesuitical distinction they hold themselves free to resist any pope who fails to follow their dictates; nor would they lament if such a pope were “providentially” speeded on his way to heaven. It is they, in fact, who comprise the Papacy. Their unalterable aim is to restore the nations of the world to the control of the Catholic Church.
As recently as 1886, the public press spoke frankly and fearlessly about the menacing tactics of the Jesuits to secure this worldcontrol by the Papacy. The New York Tribune, of Sept. 19; of that year, in a dispatch from Rome reporting the serious illness of Pope Leo XIII and his subsequent rapid recovery, states that the London Times referred editorially to the report that Pope Leo’s close approach to death “was due to poison administered by the Jesuits.” It relates that, after his sudden recovery, the pope established a new policy in the Church towards the Jesuits, “and that this new line of policy is the price at which he was able to procure the antidote which they alone could supply.” The Tribune report goes on to say:
“Within three days of the recovery from his illness, the pope issued a Bull re-establishing all the privileges, immunities, exceptions and indulgences formerly accorded to the ‘Society of Jesuits’, and declaring null and void all documents which his predecessors have ever written against the order. The fact that Leo XIII restored the order to what it was in the days of its supreme power is more than enough to paralyze all hopes of a peaceful determination of the conflict between the Vatican and the Quirinal; for the Jesuits constitute the belligerent element of Catholicism, and are thoroughly ‘intransigent’ on the subject of the temporal power of the world escaping from the control of the church . . .”
Far be it from us to doubt the sincerity of the Jesuits and their followers in believing that the control of the world by the Catholic Church is the only solution for the ills of mankind. They are welcome to their conviction, and are free in the United States to propagate their teaching and carry out their activities towards that end. The traditional manner in which they carry out their designs, however, should be disturbing to all who strive to sustain the democratic ideology and the principles of freedom and tolerance cherished so highly in this country.
In order to obtain their objective, they spend all their energies (as Nazi-Fascism does) against the two forces they consider inimical to their cause—Judaism and Freemasonry. From its first founding, the Jesuit Order has battled, by every means, against these two, because they are the chief advocates of tolerance and freedom for all. By the ruthless elimination of Jews and Freemasons in so many countries of Europe, Nazi-Fascism has merely effected what the Jesuits have schemed and worked for during many centuries.
In France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Belgium and Italy, the Jesuits, for many years before Mussolini and Hitler, led the fight against the Jews and Freemasons. In each of these countries it was a Catholic priest (prototypes of Father Coughlin) who was the spearhead of Fascist attacks on both Judaism and Freemasonry. In France it was the Jesuit Father Du Lac, with his Ligue Nationale Anti-semitique de France; in Germany the Jesuit Fathers Overmanns, Muckermann, Loffler and Pachtler; in Hungary it was Father Adalbert Bangha, and Father Bresciana in Italy—all of these worked under the banner of Positive Christianity and Christian Front to fight Judaism and Freemasonry, in order to get the millions of unsuspecting non-Catholics to serve their ends. They all proclaimed a crusade for “The Christian Reformation of States and of the World.”1 Father Overmanns2 states that “the rock of positive moral Christian law”3 is the best foundation for the creation of organizations capable of reuniting the members of all Christian religions.
Father Hugger, S. J., shortly after the establishment of the German Republic, wrote (in Stimmen der Zeit, June, 1919, p. 171):
“We are facing a ruinous state of affairs. Once again the work of restoration will have to be accomplished by youth. Will the Congregations of Mary not go forth for the third time as the instrument of reconstruction chosen by Divine Providence?”
Hitler4 also identified his National Socialist Party with “Positive Christianity.” In his Mein Kampf he states that he imbibed his anti-Semitism and his hatred of Masonry from the Catholic Christian Social Party of Lueger, then Mayor of Vienna, when he went there as a young man. “By combatting the Jews,” he says, “I am helping the work of the Lord.”
This “Christian Reform of States”—which is also the subject of the late Pope’s famous encyclical Quadragesimo Anno—is nothing else but the establishment of the Fascist, Corporative State, in which neither Jews nor Freemasons will have any part. Needless to say, it is also anti-Protestant.
The Jesuit Fathers Pachder and Muckermann proclaimed the Fascist doctrines of Nazism before Hitler was heard of. Father Muckermann wrote prolifically in favor of racial eugenics and sterilization,6 and continued to do so even in spite of the condemnation of sterilization in the encyclical Casti Connubii of Pope Pius XI in 1929.
1 P. Loffler, S. J., Zur Jubelfeier der Marianischen Kongregationen Freiburg, pp. 21, 47: G. M. Pachtler, S. J., Der Stille Krieg gegen Thron und Altar. (The Silent War against Throne and Altar), 1876; P. Bresciani, S. J., The Jew of Verona and The Roman Republic, published in the Jesuit magazine Civilta Cattolica. Rome.
2 In Stimmen der Zeit (Jesuit magazine), Feb. 1918, p. 182 et seq.
3 For the Jesuits, “Christian” is synonymous with “Roman Catholic”.
4 Cf. Art. 24 of “The National Socialist Party Program”: ”Die Partei als solche tertritt den Standpunkt eines positiven Christentums.”
5 P. 70, 1931, German ed.
6 Cf. Muckermann, Hermann, S. J.: Volkstum, Staat nnd Nation—eugenisch gesehen (“The People, State and Nation — from the Eugenic viewpoint”) ; also his Rassenforschung und Volk Zukunft, Berlin, 1932, in which he expresses the desire that the doctrine of race will penetrate the national consciousness as a religion (p. 81).
Jules Michelet, the great French historian, in his Histoire de France, and the German historian Wilhelm Herzog,7 stress the fact that those who directed the anti-Semitism at the time of the Dreyfus Affair depended upon the instructions and, above all, upon the financial support of the Jesuits. The Croix de Feu and the Parti Francais in France, and the Catholic Rexist Party in Belgium also had the support of the Jesuits. The Libre Parole, anti-Semitic daily newspaper, was founded by Jesuit money and its treasury was constantly replenished by them.8 The anti-Semitic leaders of the Dreyfus Affair, which was a plot against the French Republic, were products of Jesuit schools or had Jesuit confessors. In France, as elsewhere, anti-Semitism and anti-Masonic campaigns took the form of “integrated Nationalism/’9 They called for expulsion of Jews and Freemasons, the overthrow of the French Republic, and the setting up of a “Nationalist State.” Henlein’s Party in Czechoslovakia, likewise, preached the doctrines of Othmar Spann, the theoretician of the Corporative State and a protege of the Jesuits. One of the first acts of Father (now Monsignor) Josef Tiso, when he became Nazi premier of Slovakia, was the destruction of all Masonic lodges.
In his Mein Kampf Hitler repeats these principles of the Jesuits against Judaism and Freemasonry like a well-trained parrot. All that he says against the Jews and the revolution in Germany after the war, about Zionism, Jewish exploitation of indecency and obscenity in literature, movies, theater and the press, their part in the organization of vice, prostitution and white slavery, was borrowed almost word for word from the official writings of the Jesuits. Everything he says, likewise, against the Freemasons— their fight for religious tolerance, their efforts to break down racial and religious barriers, as well as their alleged disloyalty to Germany during the world war—is in agreement with both the teaching of the Jesuits and of the popes in their encyclicals against Masonry. The Jesuit Father Bea,10 shortly after the revolution in Germany, wrote:
“The part played by many Jews at the time of the revolution . . . the Zionist movement … all this should be a lesson to those who take their religion and their country seriously to put themselves resolutely on the defensive. The increase of anti-Semitic literature and anti-Semitic organizations is evidence that the people are ready for the fight against Judaism.”
7 Der Kampf einer Republik—die Affare Dreyfus, p. 34, et passim.
8 Cf. Herzog, opus cit., pp. 27, 52.
9 Idem, pp. 26, 36.
As far back as 1911 Father Overmanns, writing in Stimmen aus Maria Laach, states:
“It is impossible to deny the harmful influence of the Jews “on the ideal which we desire in our literature. . . . The Jews make use of the great scope of their influence to spread corrupt and obscene principles and thus cause immense damage to the spiritual life . . . Everyone can see that they create many literary works which are inspired by vile and worldly ideas . . . the hooks of these writers are filled with the base pleasures of life, a vile sensuality and pure naturalism. The commercial sense of the Jews is not offended by the worst obscenities, white slavery, prostitution and immorality of all kinds . . . “
The popes before Hitler proclaimed all this in even more brutal terms. Pope Pius VII, who restored the Jesuits to the Catholic Church and the nations of Europe after the downfall of Napoleon in 1814, issued a Bull in 1821 against the Freemasons. He calls Freemasonry “a cancer and a deadly disease of society.” And the reason he gives is because Masonic Lodges uphold the idea of religious tolerance: “. . . they receive into their order all classes and all nationalities, and favor all kinds of moral codes and all forms of worship.”
The culminating point in the Vatican’s fight against Jews and Freemasons is to be found in the encyclicals of Popes Pius IX-and Leo XIII. Pius IX styles Masonic Lodges “Synagogues of Satan,” and accuses them of having fomented wars and revolutions which put Europe to the fire and the sword. Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical Humanum Genus (1884), calls Freemasonry “a work of the devil,” and “an impure epidemic.” He accuses Freemasonry of aiming to destroy the churches, the state, and the public well-being. He states that among the chief reasons why Freemasons, and democracy, must be condemned are the following:
10 In Stimmen der Zeit, (Jesuit magazine), 1921, p. 172.
“They teach that all men have the same rights, and are perfectly equal in condition; that every man is naturally free; that no one has a right to command others; that it is tyranny to keep men subject to any other authority than that which emanates from themselves. Hence they hold that the people are sovereign, that those who rule have no authority but by the commission and concession of the people, so that they can be deposed, willing or unwilling, according to the wishes of the people. Thus the origin of all rights and civil duties is in the people or in the State, which is ruled according to the new principles of liberty. They hold that the State must not be united to religion, that there is no reason why one religion ought to be preferred to another, and that all must be held in the same esteem.”
He ends his encyclical by inviting all the Catholic clergy as well as the whole lay world to exterminate the Freemasons without mercy.11
All this was the plan of Mussolini and Hitler as expressed and put into practice by Nazi-Fascism. Circumstances have permitted it to go farther than the popes and to carry its principles by propaganda, invasion and war, into the whole world. In undermining the position that Jews and Freemasonry acquired since the French Revolution, it threatens to destroy the entire work of political and religious freedom initiated by the Protestant Reformation. It thus serves the aims of the Roman Church and the Society of Jesus, founded chiefly for the work of Counter-Reformation. For both Roman Catholicism and Nazi-Fascism regard the ideas that came out of the Reformation and the French Revolution as the chief source of the evils of our time—evils which they trace for their origins to Rousseau, Calvin, Luther, John Huss and Wycliffe —to Paris, Geneva, Wittenberg, Prague and London.
All of this again is to be found in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” An examination of this matter in the next chapter will show conclusively that this infamous forgery is the work of none other than the disciples of Ignatius Loyola.
11 Father Coughlin’s magazine, Social Justice, Oct.-Xov. 1939, reiterated all this in a series of three articles entitled Freemasonry in the Scheme of Satan. They repeat the papal assertions that Freemasonry is allied with the Jews and Communists, and end by calling it, in the words of Pope Pius IX, “The Synagogue of Satan.”