The facts of history are that some Catholic (and other) clergy supported the Nazis, more opposed them, but many tried to remain "neutral", out of concern for the fate of the German people.
Another word for "neutral" is "collaborative", and those are referred to in the statement:
Here is how Catholic News Agency puts it:
"Von Preysing came from a staunchly Catholic Bavarian background, and had been appointed Bishop of Berlin in 1935.
This was a position of importance; he may have been a suffragan to the Archbishop of Breslau – modern Wroclaw in Poland – but he was also the bishop of the Capital of Germany.
The appointment of Von Preysing was a clear message from the Vatican to Hitler.
Von Preysing had been an outspoken opponent of the Nazis from very early on.
When they came to power in 1933, he had said during a sermon, 'we have fallen into the hands of criminals and fools'...
"Somehow, the Nazis did not dare to touch Von Preysing, who ran the organization for the duration of the war.
They knew he was involved in the drafting of the Encyclical, Mit Brennender Sorge, the fierce denunciation of Nazism by Pope Pius XI, knew of his involvement in the work of Bl.
Bernard Lichtenberg, knew, too, of his attempts to have the German Bishops Conference speak out against the death camps.
(Fearful of what would happen, the senior bishops had overruled both Von Preysing and Cologne’s Archbishop, Josef Frings).
"They were aware, too, of his enormous popularity.
"This seems to have protected him even in July 1944.
That month, the German resistance, whose existence Winston Churchill denied in Parliament, carried out one last desperate attempt to remove Hitler, the last of a whole series of attempts.
Its leadership came from the Kreisau circle, in which Catholics played a major role.
Its leader, Graf von Moltke, noted in his diaries that Von Preysing attended their meetings infrequently.
"...Von Stauffenberg was a staunch Catholic, whose moral compass had not been twisted by the Nazis.
The same is true of many of the other conspirators, who included the pious Protestant second in command of the secret service, the Abwehr, Hans Oster, and his friend, the Protestant theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
"Of course, the attempt failed and Von Stauffenberg, Oster, Bonhoeffer and almost 5,000 others were tortured, humiliated and killed, some only weeks before the end of the war.
Von Preysing, however, was left untouched.
This is rather odd for the Gestapo knew that the clergy were involved, indeed, that they were sorry the attempt had failed...
What they did not know was that the Vatican knew of the action.
Although Josef Müller, the confidant of Von Faulhaber, had been arrested in 1943, there were still enough contacts with the Papacy through the Abwehr in Rome...
"For most German Catholics, the period between 1933 and 1945 was one of relentless darkness, in which they merely tried to survive.
"The Holy Father has spoken of the experience of his own family during the war, an experience that is perhaps more typical than any of the examples seen so far.
His father suffered loss of jobs for his rather outspoken dislike for the Nazis, but never went as far as to resist them openly.
He may have had the fate of his wife and children in mind, a consideration easily forgotten by those in less perilous circumstances.
"One of Joseph Ratzinger’s cousins, who had Down Syndrome, was murdered under the Nazi euthanasia program..."
My point again is that, while several other Catholic prelates are mentioned, von Preysing receives the obvious place of honor.
We might note, however, that neither CNS nor Wikipedia mentions anything about von Preysing's alleged threat (dated as January 17, 1943)
Very true but look at "Christian" churches today. The church Obama networked at and that of say Jerry Falwell are like night and day but to someone of another faith both are seen as Christian.
The Paulist Center of Boston where Sen. John Kerry shows up for photo op's with Father Frank D. Desiderio during political campaigns is a completely different animal from that of Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York desires. Again, to a person of another faith, the two are seen as Catholic Christians.
Similarly, the German church; Catholic and Protestant was all over the socio-political map.
Another word for "neutral" is "collaborative"
True but such position can stem from sympathy, or intimidation. Both were at hand.
Furthermore, church history during times of persecution is that Clergy are the first targets of the persecutors. Knowing that at least one person sitting in a pew was an informant, a pastor had to choose his words carefully lest the flock suddenly lose it's shepherd.
Nor is there evidence that von Preysing or any other German Catholic official ever spoke out publicly against the Holocaust.
What Rabbis ever spoke publicly about the treatment of Gypsies, or of euthanasia?
Did the German Catholic clergy ever speak publicly about the slaughter of Catholics in German occupied Poland? If they did, what German publication would have published such statement?
The Holocaust as defined at Wanssee began in 1942. By that time, the clergy of Obama and John Kerryesque congregations were arguably in greater proportion since those clergy who actively opposed the Nazis during the prior 10 years had been, murdered, stripped of office, forbidden to preach, thrown in concentration camps, or otherwise intimidated into silence.