ANOTHER ATTACK ON CATHOLICISM AT PENN STATE
by Gary L. Morella

n art exhibit at Penn State University conveys the unmistakable message that the Catholic Church ignored the persecution of the Jews in Poland and Germany. One painting, called "The Concordat," shows a Nazi soldier and a Roman Catholic priest standing side-by-side on the body of a Jewish prisoner. Please see ENCLOSURE 1.

The word "concordat" means an agreement between the Catholic Church and a government on what rights and freedoms the Church will have under the rule of that government. The Church has frequently entered into such agreements to put in writing the conditions under which Catholics in the country involved will be allowed to practice their faith. Per Dr. Warren Carroll, expert on Church history and tradition, the Church's concordat with the Nazi government came at the very beginning of its rule, when most people did not imagine how evil it was going to be. As might be expected, Hitler and the Nazis did not keep their promises in the concordat, and persecuted the Church in Germany. The entire Nazi regime and philosophy was condemned in the strongest language by Pope Pius XI in an encyclical in 1937. This encyclical, written in German rather than the usual Latin, is called "Mit brennender Sorge" ("With Burning Sorrow"). See ENCLOSURE 2.

To insinuate that the Church ignored the holocaust is an obfuscation of history. There was no greater enemy of nationalist socialism than the Church in the words of the witnesses of that time. See ENCLOSURE 3.

The President of Penn State, Graham Spanier, was recently upset about an unflattering caricature of himself in regards to stemming drinking on campus. In an article in a local paper he said,

"To put up a picture without having the facts, to alter a picture and to disparage an individual without speaking to that person about the issue is a tactic that the ACLU has been fighting against for decades".

Maybe now he understands the concerns of Catholics when a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary was desecrated on his campus and when the Church is maligned per this art exhibit implying that the Church was a co-conspirator with the Nazis in the persecution of the Jews.

Hopefully the concern voiced by the President of Penn State concerning a depiction of himself will equally apply to other institutions similarly defamed on his campus.

To let stand an attack on the Church as a co-conspirator with the Nazis will not go unanswered. Universities pride themselves in seeking the truth. To that end Penn State should distance itself from bigoted attacks by those who would foment hatred of an institution as a function of their ignorance of the issues at hand. Of late this has been the modus-operandi of published op-eds and letters in the local paper from people whom the Church has made uncomfortable with their vices in her mission for man to attain the supernatural as opposed to the natural.

I strongly recommend reading the The Holy Father's most recent encyclical Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason) for a beautiful exposition on this goal which is an understanding of the meaning of life. It, like, Veritatis Splendor, is a document which will stand the test of time as evidence of the Church's uncompromising witness to the Truth, a Somebody, not a something.