The New Trinity

...And he did remain silent as the Nazi atrocities mounted, though he naturally spoke critically of Nazi views and policies and countered Hitler's anti-Semitism in his famous phrase, "Spiritually we are all Semites...

...There were, of course, heroic priests and bishops, both in and outside of Germany, who defied the Nazi's wrath...

...But in a sense this trio, ostensibly eager to preserve the amicable relations between three faiths— Catholic, Protestant and Jew, a kind of new trinity—is most interesting for what it reveals of the state of our religious pluralistic society...

...My purpose is to call attention to the moral and religious problems raised in a play which deals with the silence of the Catholic Church in the face of the monstrous inhumanity of the Nazi "final solution," the extermination of millions of Jews in the gas ovens of Auschwitz...

...But then none of us can be absolved of collective complicity in the Nazi crimes...

...The play points up the ironic fact that religious communities are inclined to consult their collective interests in times of crisis, rather than the humane imperatives of individual consciences...

...An estimate of the worth of that production as a work of dramatic art appears in the following pages...

...But much evidence points to the fact that these men were prompted by their own conscience and not by Vatican orders...

...And what about Hitler's anti-Communism...

...No doubt the play will create anti-Catholic feeling or accentuate existing biases...

...5.95), not on the basis of the Broadway production of the play...

...In any case, the very phrase "Deputy of Christ" points to the ironic contrast between the ideal of sacrificial heroism, of which Christ is the symbol in the Christian religious community, and the moral mediocrities of communities, religious and secular, who are intent on their own survival...

...Catholics are naturally apprehensive about the effect of the play...

...I do not happen to know whether the distinguished young playwright has any religious bias, though I do know that he is not a Catholic...

...This irony should carry a warning to all organized religious groups...

...Might the trio not signify, whatever the conscious motives of its members, that a nice chummy tolerance between hitherto hostile groups must not be disturbed even by an honest word of truth to all of them...

...One question more about that trio: What possible motive could its Jewish member have had...

...The Pope is pictured not as a villain but merely as the responsible head of a great religious community who naturally conceives his responsibilities in political terms: How will his policies affect the church in Poland...

...But the general reaction to the play, both in Europe and here in America, has been a deplorable display of apprehension lest it should violate one's religious sensitivities or arouse another's religious bias...

...The late Pope Pius XII was in fact responsible for the Vatican Concordat with Hitler as Secretary of State to the previous Pope, Pius XI...

...That word might be subject to misunderstanding, but it would certainly have aroused the conscience of all religiously complacent persons...

...The translation of the German word Stellvertreter, which has both religious and secular connotations, into the English word "Deputy" with its purely secular connotations rather than the word "Vicar" with its religious connotations, must have been shrewdly designed to make the last point especially vivid...

...Despite minor historical errors, some of which have been eliminated in the English translation, the play is a reasonably accurate presentation of the historical facts, which are skillfully interwoven in the dialogue...

...It should be obvious, however, that its moral point is directed at all organized religious groups...

...Fortunately, some Catholics have come to The Deputy's defense, recognizing that its point is well taken and, if properly received, will arouse the conscience of all people —particularly those who are religiously committed...

...It must be admitted, though, that the Catholic symbols of the irony, particularly in the designation o£ the Pope, lend themselves to its dramatic projection...

...The play found it difficult to get both a producer and a theater for its Broadway performance...

...The executives are said to have reacted against the implied threat to the cherished freedom of the press...

...One of these priests, in the play he is called Father Fontana, is indeed cast in the role of The Deputy's hero...

...their collective interests tend to prompt "political" policies on a level lower than their professed moral and religious ideals, which are usually rooted in an individual perfectionist ethic...

...Worst of all, reportedly a committee of Catholic, Protestant and Jewish leaders visited mass communications executives to "advise with" them about the best form of publicity in regard to The Deputy...

...But regardless, the Catholic Church is the most vivid symbol of his theme, both because of the tightness of its internal discipline—which is, incidentally, the source of its virtues in our present struggles for racial justice— and because its absolute monarch is defined in its credo as the "Deputy of Christ...