Edmond Paris - The Secret History of the Jesuits

"History is a novel", said a disillusioned thinker. The one of our epoch will be true to this definition: the novel is being written under our eyes. Many

'historians' are contributing to it, well-disposed ecclesiastics and laymen, and we can be certain that the result will be edifying: a Catholic novel, of course.

The Jesuits' contribution is extensive, as worthy heirs of Father Loriquet whose "History of France" gave such a fanciful picture of Napoleon.

Compared to this skilful feat, it was a simple matter to camouflage the collaboration between the clerics and the German occupier, from 1940 to 1944, and make it vanish. And this is still going on; over the years, so many articles have been written in newspapers, periodicals, books, under the patronage of the "Imprimatur", to sing the praise of the misjudged super-patriots such as Suhard, Baudrillart, Duthoit, Auvity, Du Bois de la Villerabel, Mayol de Luppe, etc.! What a lot of pages blackened to exalt the attitude—so heroic—of the episcopate, during the war years in which France experienced "a situation which led the French bishops to become the

"defenders of the city"!, as a wry joker wrote.(104)

"Slander, and slander again! there is bound to be something left", advised Basile, this perfect type of Jesuit. "Whitewash, and whitewash again", say his successors, great writers of "historical novels".

And this whitewashing is being carried out extensively.

Future generations, submerged by a torrent of exaggerations, will devote (104) R.P. Deroo: "L'Episcopat francais dans la melee de son temps", (Bonne Presse, Paris 1955, p. 103). Imprimatur 1955.

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a thankful thought—at least, we hope they will—to these "defenders" of the city, these heroes of the Roman Church and Homeland, "dressed with a candid honesty of white linen" by the work of their apologists; some of them were even canonised!

On the 25th of August 1944, the Jesuit Cardinal Suhard, archbishop of Paris (since the 11th of May 1940!) and leader of the clerical collaborators, imperturbably decided to celebrate the "Te Deum" of victory at Notre-Dame.

We were spared this unseemly farce only through "the strong protest of the general chaplain of the F.F.I."

We read in "France-Dimanche" of the 26th of December 1948: "His Eminence, Cardinal Suhard, archbishop of Paris, on the anniversary of his entering the priesthood has just received an autographic letter from His Holiness Pius XII who congratulates him, amongst other things, for the part he played during the occupation. We know that the cardinal's behaviour during that period had been severely criticized after the Liberation.

When General de Gaulle arrived back in Paris, in August 1944, he refused to meet the cardinal at the "Te Deum" in Notre-Dame. At that time, the prelate was openly accused of "collaborationist tendencies".

The Holy-Father's congratulations are then understandable. But there is another story of "Te Deum" even more edifying!: After the allies disembarked, the city of Rennes suffered much in the fighting which followed, and many died amongst the civilian population as the commanding officer of the German garrison had refused to evacuate them. When the city was taken, the traditional "Te Deum" was going to be celebrated, but the archbishop and primate of Britany, Monseigneur Roques, absolutely refused, not only to officiate himself but also to allow t h i s ceremony to take place in his cathedral. To thank Heaven for the liberation of his city was an intolerable scandal to the eyes of this prelate.

Because of this attitude, he was confined to the archbishop's residence by the French authorities.

Such loyalty to the "pontifical thought" called for an equivalent reward. It came from Rome, soon after, in the shape of a Cardinal's hat.

We can blame the late Pius XII with many things, but we must admit that he always "acknowledged his own". A flattering letter to Cardinal Suhard, distinguished collaborator, the Cardinal's purple for Monseigneur Roques, hero of the... German Resistance: this "great pope" was practising a strict distributive justice.

Of course, his entourage was of the kind which could advise him wisely: two German Jesuits, R.P. Leiber and R.P. Hentrich, "his two private secretaries and his favourites".(105) His confessor was the German Jesuit Bea. Sister Pasqualina, a German nun, supervised his household and above (105) 'La Croix', 10th of October 1958.

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all cooked for him. Even the canary, answering to the sweet name of

"Dumpfaf", had been imported from beyond the Rhine.

But had not the Sovereign Pontiff told Ribbentrop, after Hitler invaded Poland, that "he would always have a special affection for Germany"?(106).

(106) We read in "Documentation catholique" of the 15th of March 1959: "As far as the very estimable German nation is concerned, we will follow the example given to us by our Predecessor (Pius XII), signed John XXIII. The spirit of continuity is one of the Vatican's attributes.

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Section V

Chapter 5

The Gestapo and the Company of Jesus

If Pius XI and Pius XII's goodwill and friendliness never failed towards the Fuhrer whom they had brought to power, we must admit that he f u l l f i l e d all the conditions of the pact by which he was bound to the Vatican. As he had expressly promised to "strangle" the anticlericals, they soon followed the liberals and Jews into the concentration camps. We know how the chief of the Third Reich had decided the fate of the Jews: they were simply massacred or, when more advantagous, made to work until worn out then liquidated. In this case the 'final solution' was only delayed.

But let us see, first, how an especially "authorised" personality, Franco, Knight of the Order of Christ, expressly confirmed the collusion between the Vatican and the nazis. According to "Reforme", this is what the press of the Spanish dictator (Franco) published on the 3rd of May 1945, the day of Hitler's death:

"Adolf Hitler, son of the Catholic Church, died while defending Christianity. It is therefore understandable that words cannot be found to lament over his death, when so many were found to exalt his life. Over his mortal remains stands his victorious moral figure. With the palm of the martyr, God gives Hitler the laurels of Victory".(107) This funeral oration of the nazi chief, a challenge to the victorious allies, is voiced by the Holy See itself, under the cover of Franco's press. It is a communique of the Vatican given via Madrid.

Of course, this missing hero well deserved the gratitude of the Roman Church and they do not attempt to conceal it. He served her faithfully: all those this Church pointed out to him as her adversaries felt the consequences. And this good 'son' wasn't slow in admitting what he owed to his Most Holy Mother, and especially to those who made themselves her (107) "Reforme", 21st of July 1945.

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soldiers in the world.

"I learned much from the Order of the Jesuits", said Hitler... "Until now, there has never been anything more grandiose, on the earth, than the hierarchical organisation of the Catholic Church. I transferred much of this organisation into my own party... I am going to let you in on a secret... I am founding an Order... In my "Burgs" of the Order, we will raise up a youth which will make the world tremble... Hitler then stopped, saying that he couldn't say any more.."(108)

Another highly placed hitlerian, Walter Schellenberg, former chief of the German counter-espionage, completed this confidence from the Fuhrer, after the war:

"The S.S. organisation had been constituted, by Himmler, according to the principles of the Jesuits' Order. Their regulations and the Spiritual Exercises prescribed by Ignatius of Loyola were the model Himmler tried to copy exactly... The "Reichsfuhrer SS"—Himmler's title as supreme chief of the SS—was to be the equivalent of the Jesuits' "General" and the whole structure of the direction was a close imitation of the Catholic Church's hierarchical order. A mediaeval castle, near Paderborn in Westphalia, and called "Webelsbourg", was restored; it became what could be called a SS