WW II, Euthanasia and a Neo-Dachau
This first day of September marks the 81st anniversary of the beginning of World War II, with Germany’s invasion of Poland, one week after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between Germany and Russia (which Hitler would later violate, one of the many factors leading to the collapse of the Nazi Third Reich). Our Lady predicted the unimaginable horrors of that war, back in 1917, when she told the young visionaries that there would a worse war to come if men did not repent – and we all know how that went.
By one of those not-unconnected coincidences of history, Hitler also chose this day to begin the official euthanasia program of his regime – Aktion T-4, named after the address, Tiergartenstraße, where the headquarters were set up in 1940 – putting to death in surreptitious ways the ‘defectives’ in hospitals and sanitariums across Germany. We know not how many were actually killed – the official number of 70,273 likely being a gross underestimate, and their death certificates were often outright lies, and patients were being euthanized for years before the decree, in secret. This euthanasia program soon developed into the ‘final solution’, to murder Jews and all the other ‘undesirables’ – from Catholics to gypsies and anyone else who resisted, or who was just not expedient to the bizarre and evil ideology of the Nazi regime.
We should ponder this, as euthanasia, now legalized, but practised for years ‘in secret’, picks up steam, and what began as quasi-voluntary, now slips gradually into the not-quite voluntary. For what begins as an (apparent) right, soon becomes and (apparent) duty, both for the physician, and the patient.
Already, in Canada, in 2019, there were 5,631 people killed by physicians, up from 2,613 the year before – and, again, those are only the official numbers. How many of those were fully ‘voluntary’ – not that that exculpates those involved? Might a different kind of ‘Dachau’ soon be upon us, with the neo-barbarians, to paraphrase Chesterton, wearing dress shoes and labcoats, instead of jackboots and Hugo Boss-designed leather Nazi costumes?
One of the most energetic and brutal officers in charge of the mass murder of millions – without whom it may well have collapsed – was ironically called Christian Wirth. It is always surprising what one great sinner, or one great saint, can do. Yet, Wirth, with his lies and his whip in hand driving Jews and others into the gas chambers, could not do what he did without the assistance of untold numbers of others, less zealous than he, perhaps, for evil.
Are we exculpated? Morgentaler was responsible for the murder of untold thousands of unborn children, yet we have bestowed on him Canada’s highest honour – and the mob, so I just read, has toppled the statue of our first Prime Minister, beheading him for good measure. And the police stand idly by. We will have more to say on this, but for now, the words of Yeats are a propos:
We need a Bishop von Galen, the Lion of Munster, a Maximilan Kolbe, and all the other hidden prophets, to rail against this evil – along, of course, with abortion and all the other deviancies devouring our nation and children – before it be too late, and others look back on our age, like we now do with Nazi Germany, and ask, quite literally, ‘what the hell happened?’.
As Paul Suski alludes in his article, even in ‘hell’, we can find a few saints, who can turn even the inferno into heaven – or at least lead a few or more than a few by the grace of God, out of the abyss towards which we are slipping.
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→
An Ideological and Improper Translation
I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→
Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle: A Teacher for Teachers
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651 – 1719), a French nobleman, ordained a priest, founded the first order in the Church’s history entirely without priests, and this came about almost by accident. I say ‘almost’, for, of course, there are no accidents with God. Destined for ordination from an early age, Jean-Baptiste never looked back, even[…]Continue reading→