The Churches in Germany .
_ Events of the last week have given special point to the Pope's recent reference to "the Germanic countries where the blind struggle against God and the Church of Christ is raging." Catholics and Protestants have been dealt severe blows by the State. On Monday Herr Adolf Wagner, at Garmisch, in Bavaria, announced that the schools of four Roman Catholic Orders had been closed, because of "immorality," and that all the ordinary Catholic Schools would be secularised. This action is said to be justified by the vote of 95 per cent. of the parents cast in favour of secu- larisation; it means that, in -Upper Bavaria, for instance; nearly r,000 of the 1,066 schools will be secularised. Cardinal Faulhaber, Archbishop of Munich, denies that the vote was voluntary; and in this public opinion is behind- him. Protestants have suffered equally. Five Evangelical pastors in Berlin, and two from Oldenburg and Schneidemiihl, have been arrested for incitement to disobedience ; the Regional Church Committees have been dissolved ; and the Confessional pastors have been prevented from taking collections to pay for religious education. In this persecution of the churches Herr Hitler appears to show rather less than his usual political acumen ; the assumption is either that be wishes to divert attention from other discontents or that the conflict between Christianity and National Socialism is too deep to be concealed. - * * * *
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