Word: pfner
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...under renewed pressure from Rome. The Jesuit newspaper Civiltà Cattolica asked whether voluntary resignation might not be "more suitable both for the church and Defregger himself." The question was significant, since the Vatican often uses the paper to express its views. Munich's Julius Cardinal Döpfner announced that his auxiliary for the" time being would handle administrative responsibilities but not sacerdotal duties. Defregger himself entered a Munich hospital "for a thorough checkup and general rest...
...hands of the affair, the Vatican denied that it had knowledge of Defregger's wartime past when it made him bishop last year. The Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano reported that only Defregger's "immediate superiors"-led by Munich's Julius Cardinal Döpfner, one of the main liberal architects of Vatican II -knew of the incident, and they did not inform the Holy...
...aspects of the Defregger imbroglio are its repercussions in the religious life of Germany. For the first time in years, the German Evangelical (Lutheran) Church has broken a carefully maintained harmony with the Catholic hierarchy to criticize Catholic handling of the case, and the prestige of Cardinal Döpfner has been damaged...
Last week, as criticism grew in Munich, Cardinal Döpfner came to his assistant's defense with an impassioned plea for understanding. According to the cardinal, the division commander had first ordered Defregger to shoot all males in the village. He had refused, and the number to be executed was lowered. When he still refused, the general sent staff officers to see that the reprisals were carried out. Defregger objected again, but finally, and reluctantly, passed on the order to a lieutenant. "He himself," noted Döpfner, "did not participate in the executions...
According to Dietrich Rahn, Frankfurt's chief prosecutor, Defregger's involvement might have been, at the very most, manslaughter, a crime for which the German statute of limitations expired in 1959. Döpfner, who shocked many Catholics by admitting that he had known about Defregger's military history all along, said he was convinced that "according to international law, no criminal action has taken place." He also reminded his Munich flock that the 114th, an antipartisan outfit with a reputation for ruthlessness, had been engaged in "an especially dangerous withdrawal operation . . . It is almost impossible...