CNA Newsroom, Jul 10, 2023 / 13:45 pm (CNA).
Cardinal Reinhard Marx on Sunday asked for forgiveness in the case of a German World War II massacre in Italy on the orders of a man who went on to become a bishop in Munich.
Before he ascended to the rank of auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising in 1968, Matthias Defregger wore a different uniform. As a captain in the 114th Jäger Division, he presided over a grim chapter of history. His unit, in the summer of 1944, extinguished the lives of 17 innocent men and set ablaze the village of Filetto di Camarda.
On July 9, the current archbishop of Munich found himself face-to-face with descendants of those victims. Marx thanked the people of Filetto for their courage in confronting the past and their refusal to let history be swept under the rug.
“We feel how important it is not to forget,” he said. “Suppression of history cannot build a good future.”
World War II was nearing its end in Italy when the massacre occurred. The German Wehrmacht was in retreat, the U.S.-led Allies had just entered Rome. Yet, in the small community of Filetto di Camarda, not far from L’Aquila, the war was far from over. After an attack by Italian partisans, Maj. Gen. Hans Boelsen ordered a brutal act of “reprisal.” Defregger, reportedly reluctant, ultimately relayed the order that led to the execution of at least 17 innocent men between the ages of 20 and 65, and the burning of their village.
When the smoke of war cleared, Defregger, born in 1915 and a grandson of the Tyrolean painter Franz von Defregger, sought solace in the priesthood. He studied at a Jesuit college in Austria and was ordained a priest in 1949 in his native town of Munich.
Defregger’s charisma and competence saw the former Wehrmacht officer rise swiftly through the ranks of the Bavarian diocese, culminating in his appointment as auxiliary bishop by Pope Paul VI.
Yet the shadow of his past was never far behind. The “Defregger case” made headlines in the 1960s with allegations that Munich Cardinal Julius Döpfner knew about the popular prelate’s wartime actions when he consecrated him.
German and English media covered the “Defregger case” in the 1960s. The Catholic magazine The Tablet noted that neither the papal nuncio nor the Congregation for Bishops in Rome knew about what the magazine called the “Filetto affair” when they “passed on and approved” Defregger’s nomination to bishop. Other media reported that the bishop in 1969 asked the people of Filetto for forgiveness.
Ultimately, despite long legal investigations and several court proceedings in both Italy and Germany, Defregger was never found guilty.
Reflecting on these events on Sunday, Marx emphasized the importance of moral action, even in war, and the courage to face one’s past. He lamented that this was not done in Defregger’s case and apologized for the diocese’s failure to confront the truth.
“It is never good to suppress the truth,” he said, “but it is crucial to always look at the truth and make it an impulse to move forward.”
In 2023, the picturesque town of Pöcking in Upper Bavaria, where Defregger had retired and lived until his death in 1995, made a significant decision. Following a critical examination of Defregger’s legacy — and encouraged by local history professor Marita Krauss — the town’s council voted to change the name of a small street that had been named in his honor.
This move reflected a growing awareness and acknowledgment of the controversial aspects of Defregger’s past, even in the community that remembered him first and foremost as a charismatic and devout preacher.
In 2022, a delegation from Pöcking had traveled to Filetto to attend a commemoration of the 1944 massacre. This year, the residents of Filetto reciprocated the visit, traveling to Bavaria.
In a symbolic gesture of this growing bond and acknowledgment of the past, the small street in Pöcking, once named after Defregger, as of this year bears the name “Filetto.”
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As a member of the human race that gives me standing to do what I am about to do, I hereby apologize for the original sinful actions of Adam and Eve, even if they apologized for their own actions.
While I am at it, I hereby apologize for the apostle Paul, because prior to his conversion, he persecuted many Christians, approved the stoning of Stephen and apparently approved the executions of other Christians as well. And because of his sinful past prior to his conversion, I am also recommending that any churches named after him should no longer bear his name.
I am also recommending that Cardinal Marx, as a citizen of Germany, should apologize to all Jews on behalf of Adolf Hitler and his Nazis for their numerous atrocities against Jews while running the government of Germany.
Clapping hand emojis to you, DocVerit.
I could add to your list of those for whom the cardinal should apologize, but I fear he may suffer a surfeit of humility if he were to continue dispensing such capacious apology. Already he has so copiously, generously, and expansively dished out overmuch in the name of his evolved church.
Thanks, meiron. Alas, in addition to the basic absurdity of vicarious apologies, what we also have here is another unjust contribution to the myth that the Catholic Church was not really the enemy of Nazi Germany during the reign of Hitler.
Moreover, to people like Cardinal Marx, the “guilty” Catholic Church of that time was the “benighted” more traditional Church not yet “enlightened” by “progressives” like Marx and his fellow travelers. In this respect, the vicarious apology is a not so subtle arrogant chastisement of the traditional Church based on another false “progressive” narrative.
Mahatma Gandhi was a firm believer in peace and non-violence. He disapproved wars and world wars. Gandhi would say: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
In 2008 Pope Benedict called upon Hindus in India to imitate Gandhi, rather than continue their own violence, against Christians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_against_Christians_in_India
Thus, in your judgment Doctor, when it comes down to St. Augustine’s moral theology about war, or Ghandi’s critique of the appalling British Empire and its defooand tortured imitation of Christianity, you judge Ghandi superior to Augustine.
As they once upon a time said at law schools: “Bad cases make bad law.”
I suppose tour opinion is an aspect of “the recent magisterium?”
Mahatma Gandhi, despite his historical merits, is no God, and his words should not be taken as such. I have been hearing through the years that quote of his you bring here, and the same always comes to my mind, that that was an arrogant guilt trip of his as the Church is filled with canonized Saints and those who were and are non-canonized Saints, as canonization is merely a recognition of something God did in a human person, man or women or child.
There’s Catholics who did plenty of charity works among the people and the poor of the world and of India in Gandhi’s time (Mother Teresa being at the top), yet he could not see them. His blindness was too convenient to exalt himself. Self-exaltation is the opposite of Christ-likeness, and it applies to him and to all of us.
My comment below may have been posted at an earlier occation.
Poor senior’s memory! Apologies. Bob
Paul was thrown off his horse, was converted, and eventually
was MANDATED to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. What’s to be
apologetic about here ?? . . especially when “I-AM-JESUS”
peppered His Servant [ Paul ] with many “heavy-duty” Crosses
. . stoneings, shipwreck, flogging, many “minor” crosses,
concluded with beheading in Rome.
As a little detail of little interest…there is no horse in scripture; this is the artistic-license invention of the artist Carrivaggio in 1610.
Caravaggio!
Scripture doesn’t relate St. Paul rode on a horse it’s true, but perhaps it’s assumed in the similar way we see the Blessed Mother depicted riding a donkey to Bethlehem?
As a mother I can attest that walking would have been a whole lot more bearable in that condition that riding on the back of a donkey.
But we really don’t know what happened back then.
The indications I got from the article were that Bishop Defregger had repented. If that is forgotten, or minimized, was tasking his name off the street really about “remembering history?”
Marx apologizes for Defregger torching the village of Filetto di Camarda and executing 17 civilians….Butt, if not Marx, then who will eventually apologize for his (Marx’s) attempt to torch the Church, itself, and erase the memory of two millennia of membership in the perennial Catholic Church…a smoldering agenda with a flare-up now at the Synod on Synodality:
Wikipedia: “Cardinal Müller criticized Marx again in September 2022 when he spoke regarding texts that Marx and Bishop Batzing were supporting that were calling for the Pope to change church teachings on sexual morality and the ordination of women: ‘There are two errors in this that only theologically ignorant can commit: 1) the Pope has no authority to change the teaching of the Church, which is based on God’s revelation. By doing so, he would exalt himself as a man above God. 2) the apostles can only teach and order what Jesus commanded them to teach (Mt 28:19)’. In November 2022, in another interview, Muller criticized Cardinal Marx for putting away his pectoral cross when he visited the city of Jerusalem out of respect for other faiths.”
Just to be clear, the column did not say that Defregger had ever been accused of torching the village or executing anyone.
And it did say that in spite of lengthy investigations and several court proceedings in both Italy and Germany, he was never found guilty. Apparently, of anything.
Why stop here? Marx should keep going and apologize for himself, and all German Bishops who support the Synodaler Weg.
Well, he wouldn’t score any virtue signaling points for that, so it’s a non-starter.