Michael Von Faulhaber - Post War Years

Post War Years

After the war Faulhaber pled for Father Josef Tiso who was President of the Slovakian Peoples Party which persecuted Jews in 1941 and 1944. Faulhaber described Tiso as a "prelate in good standing". Tiso was hanged for war crimes and Vatican radio refused to defend him saying "There are certain laws that must be obeyed no matter how much one loves his country." Michael Phayer blames Faulhaber's mistake on the failure of the Vatican to keep informed its prelates, describing it as a "dead end for information about genocide." After the war the German Bishops conference issued a statement that many Germans, including Roman Catholics, had been war criminals. The most controversial section dealing with the issue of personal or collective guilt for the Holocaust caused a rift between the predominately Catholic population of southern Germany and the Occupational Military Government-United States when the latter censored the bishops letter. Faulhaber refused to publish a censored version. He also said that German Jews should be welcomed back to the country as they belonged just as much as any other Germans, offering to pay for their transportation costs to Germany from Theresienstadt. Faulhaber received expressions of gratitude from the Jewish Community Centre, who noted his well-meaning attitude shown to Jews in Munich during the years of persecution. Faulhaber called anti-Semitism a scourge of mankind and gave the assurance to an Anglo-American group "that I will do all in my power to convince the Roman Catholics of Bavaria that they must tear out all remaining anti-Semitism from their hearts." He said he would ask the Pope to issue a pastoral letter on anti-Semitism. Michael Phayer is of the opinion that in practice Faulhaber, along with Cardinal Preysing, accomplished "little or nothing" of significance in attacking anti-Semitism and that this was due to the priorities of the Vatican and the envoy of Pope Pius XII, Bishop Aloysius Muench. On 29 June 1951 Faulhaber ordained Joseph Ratzinger (who was later elected as Pope Benedict XVI) and his brother Georg Ratzinger, both then deacons, to the priesthood.