Resignation and Death
Hudal's activities caused a press scandal in 1947, after he was accused of leading a Nazi smuggling ring by the Passauer Neue Presse, a Catholic newspaper, but, as in 1923, playing the Austrian versus the Vatican and German cards, he only resigned as rector of Santa Maria dell'Anima in 1952, under joint pressure from the German and Austrian bishops and the Holy See. In January 1952, the Bishop of Salzburg told Hudal that the Holy See wanted to dismiss him. In June Hudal announced to the cardinal protector of Santa Maria dell'Anima that he had decided to leave the College, though disapproving of the Church allegedly being governed by the Allies. He resided afterwards in Grottaferrata, near the city of Rome, where in 1962 he wrote his embittered memoirs called Römische Tagebücher. Lebensbeichte eines alten Bischofs (Diaries of Rome. The Confession of Life of an Old Bishop), published posthumously in 1976.
Until his death in 1963, he never gave up in trying to obtain an amnesty for Nazis. Despite his protests against anti-Semitism in the 1930s, in his memoirs, with full knowledge of the Holocaust as of 1962, the "Brown Bishop" said of his actions in favour of war criminals and genocide perpetrators and participants: "I thank God that He opened my eyes and allowed me to visit and comfort many victims in their prisons and concentration camps and them escape with false identity papers" — where these so-called "victims" were in fact Axis prisoners of war and their "concentration camps" Allied detention camps.
Alois Hudal was not a poor person. After he was banned from Rome by the Vatican of Pope Pius, he withdrew to his sumptuous residence in Grottaferrata near Rome, embittered towards Pope Pius XII. However, not only the Vatican, but also the Austrian public were upset with Hudal especially at his last trip to Austria in 1961. He died in 1963. His diaries were published in Austria thirteen years after his death and describe perceived Vatican injustices he experienced under Pope Pius XI and Pius XII after the publication of his book. He maintains the opinion that a Faustian bargain between socialism, nationalism and Christianity is the way of the future.
Read more about this topic: Alois Hudal, Biography
Famous quotes containing the words resignation and/or death:
“Resignation, not mystic, not detached, but resignation open- eyed, conscious, and informed by love, is the only one of our feelings for which it is impossible to become a sham.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death M even death on a cross.”
—Bible: New Testament, Philippians 2:5-8.