VERBAL NOTE OF THE GERMAN EMBASSY TO THE HOLY SEE TO THE SECRETARIATE OF STATE OF HIS HOLINESS (August 29th 1941)
This Verbal Note shows what the db,ims of the German government regarding the nomination of local Ordinaries were. The document acquires, greater importance when it is remembered that even as early as July 27th 19kO the German ambassador to the Holy See had verbally declared to the Secretariate of State that the episcopal sees, both m the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and in Polomd would have to be conferred on German priests or at least on priests of German origin.
The appointments recently made by the Holy See of various Apostolic Administrators for the administration of episcopal offices in the territories subject to German sovereignty gives the Government of the Reich occasion to communicate the following :
In view of the importance that attaches to the conferring of all the high offices of the Roman Catholic Church, the Government of the Reich cannot renounce the right to be heard before such offices are conferred; a right which-belongs to it in virtue of its sovereignty. It must, on the contrary, attach importance to its being given the possibility of having its objections of a general political character heard before the conferring of the offices of Archbishop, Bishop, Coadjutor with the right of succession as also of independent Prelate (Praelatus Nullius) in the entire new territory of the Reich, together with Alsace, Lorraine, Luxemburg and the freed territories of Lower Steyer, Kaernten and Krain and also of the General Government area (Generalgouvernement). Moreover, the government must claim this right also in cases where the administration of the above-mentioned ecclesiastical offices is to be in the hands of an Apostolic Administrator, or of a Vicar Capitular beyond a reasonable time or finally of any other diocesan administrator whatsoever.
In the interest of uniformity in administration throughout the entire sovereign territory of the Reich, the government must further attach importance to the fact that, within the old territory of the Reich, the appointment of ecclesiastical dignitaries of the kind just mentioned (Apostolic Administrators, Vicars Capitular and other diocesan administrators) be not made unless the government has been similarly approached beforehand confidentially, and given the opportunity to submit for consideration any objections of a general political character it may at' the time have against the proposed candidates.
1037
3267-PS
The Government of the Reich therefore asks the Holy See before conferring in future any ecclesiastical offices of the kind above mentioned, to afford it, by means of an appropriate communication, the opportunity to submit for consideration any possible difficulties of a general political character.
Certificate, and a message from the German embassy to the Vatican, asserting the government's claim to screen candidates for appointment to senior Catholic positions in Germany
Authors
Domenico Tardini (secretary of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, Vatican (1945))
Domenico Tardini
Catholic cardinal
- Born: 1888-02-29 (Rome)
- Died: 1961-07-30 (Rome)
- Country of citizenship: Italy (period: 1946-06-18 through 1961-07-30); Kingdom of Italy (period: 1888-02-29 through 1946-06-18)
- Occupation: Catholic deacon (since: 1912-03-23); Catholic priest (since: 1912-09-20); diplomat; theologian
- Member of: Pontifical Academy of Sciences
- Position held: Cardinal Secretary of State (period: 1958-11-17 through 1961-07-30); Catholic bishop (since: 1958-12-27); cardinal (since: 1958-12-15); titular archbishop (diocese: Laodicea in Syria (Roman Catholic titular see); since: 1958-12-14)
- Educated at: Pontifical Roman Seminary; Pontifical Urbaniana University
- VIAF ID: https://viaf.org/viaf/105921
Date: 13 November 1945
Literal Title: [second page:] Verbal Note of the German Embassy to the Holy See to the Secretariate of State of His Holiness (August 29th 1941)
Defendant: Joachim Ribbentrop, von
Total Pages: 2
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-3267
Citation: IMT (page 6613)
HLSL Item No.: 450470
Notes:Tardini certified the embassy's Note (29 August 1941) on 13 November 1945.
Trial Issues
Conspiracy (and Common plan, in IMT) (IMT, NMT 1, 3, 4) IMT count 1: common plan or conspiracy (IMT) Nazi regime (rise, consolidation, economic control, and militarization) (I… Persecution of political, religious, and ethnic ("racial") groups (IMT, NM…
Document Summary
PS-3267: Translation into English 'Verbal note of the German Embassy to the Holy See to the Secretariate of State of His Holiness' which shows the claims of the German Government re nomination of local Ordinaries
PS-3267: Copy of note from the German Embassy to the Vatican, dated 29 August 1941.