| | The Vatican signed the Reichskonkordat in 1933 to try to normalize the status of the Catholic Church in nazi Germany. Nevertheless, Catholicism faced much hostility from powerful Nazis, especially from the neo-pagan tendency associated with figures like Alfred Rosenberg. Disputes arose early on sensitive issues and in areas such as youth organizations, religious education, Catholic labor organizations, and the press, though Rosenberg's anti-Christian rhetoric provoked the Church to defend itself more assertively. Though only a minority of German Catholics actively resisted the regime, many kept a critical distance from it. The Church's predicament showed that traditionalism and hard-line fascism were essentially irreconcilable, but also revealed the limits of the German Church's political understanding in 1933.<ref>Günter Lewy, ''The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany'' (1964); Ernst Christian Helmreich, ''The German Churches under Hitler'' (1979)</ref> | | The Vatican signed the Reichskonkordat in 1933 to try to normalize the status of the Catholic Church in nazi Germany. Nevertheless, Catholicism faced much hostility from powerful Nazis, especially from the neo-pagan tendency associated with figures like Alfred Rosenberg. Disputes arose early on sensitive issues and in areas such as youth organizations, religious education, Catholic labor organizations, and the press, though Rosenberg's anti-Christian rhetoric provoked the Church to defend itself more assertively. Though only a minority of German Catholics actively resisted the regime, many kept a critical distance from it. The Church's predicament showed that traditionalism and hard-line fascism were essentially irreconcilable, but also revealed the limits of the German Church's political understanding in 1933.<ref>Günter Lewy, ''The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany'' (1964); Ernst Christian Helmreich, ''The German Churches under Hitler'' (1979)</ref> |