Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber, Archbishop of Munich-Freising (1917-1952), has been called by some historians an indefatigable champion of resistance to Nazism while others have decried his moral hypocrisy for failing to publicly condemn the Holocaust. My project examines the complex pattern of both resistance and official silence evident in Faulhaber’s letters to government officials, sermons, and pastoral letters in an attempt to resolve this historiographical debate. I have concluded that Faulhaber's decisions concerning which acts of the Nazi State to speak out against and which to remain officially silent about were determined primarily by his unwavering belief in his pastoral duty to first and foremost defend Christianity as the moral foundation of society, and his perceived obligation to uphold the Reichskonkordat by eschewing involvement in political questions not directly connected with the Church. In addition, Catholic doctrine forbidding extralegal resistance to government, plus Faulhaber's naïve faith in the utility of reasoning with Nazi officials, limited the effectiveness of Faulhaber's qualified opposition. As a result, Faulhaber failed to meet his own moral standards and denounce injustice in a truly ‘catholic’ sense. Initial research and translation of primary sources for this project was facilitated by a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) grant.

“A Time to Keep Silence and a Time to Speak:” Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber’s Qualified Opposition to the Third Reich