Sophie Scholl, the White Rose, and Conscience

From Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation blogspot on 9.5.2011 
http://supremacyandsurvival.blogspot.com/

Sophie Scholl, White Rose objector to Nazi rule in Germany, was born on May 9, 1921; she was guillotined on February 22, 1943. Scholl is one of the most admired women in 20th Century German history--but what does she have to do with the subject of this blog?

According to this Catholic Herald story from 2009, she and her White Rose compatriots were very much influenced by Blessed John Henry Newman, particularly by his teachings on conscience:

Cardinal John Henry Newman was an inspiration of Germany's greatest heroine in defying Adolf Hitler, scholars have claimed.

New documents unearthed by German academics have revealed that the writings of the 19th-century English theologian were a direct influence on Sophie Scholl, who was beheaded for circulating leaflets urging students at Munich University to rise up against Nazi terror.

Scholl, a student who was 21 at the time of her death in February 1943, is a legend in Germany, with two films made about her life and more than 190 schools named after her. She was also voted "woman of the 20th century" by readers of Brigitte, a women's magazine, and a popular 2003 television series called Greatest Germans declared her to be the greatest German woman of all time
But behind her heroism was the "theology of conscience" expounded by Cardinal Newman, according to Professor Günther Biemer, the leading German interpreter of Newman, and Jakob Knab, an expert on the life of Sophie Scholl, who will later this year publish research in Newman Studien on the White Rose resistance movement, to which she belonged.
The researchers also found a link between Scholl and Pope Benedict XVI in the scholar who inspired her study of Blessed John Henry Newman:

He added: "The religious question at the heart of the White Rose has not been adequately acknowledged and it is only through the work of Guenter Biemer and Jakob Knab that Newman's influence... can be identified as highly significant."
In his speech Fr Fenlon explained that Sophie, a Lutheran, was introduced to the works of Newman by a scholar called Theodor Haecker, who had written to the Birmingham Oratory in 1920 asking for copies of Newman's work, which he wanted to translate into German. . . .

It was through Haecker that the young Joseph Ratzinger - the future Pope Benedict XVI - learned to admire Newman, who died in Birmingham in 1890.

Conscience is a subtext throughout the history of the English Reformation and its aftermath--beginning with Henry VIII's "tender conscience" about having married his brother's widow. Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons centers St. Thomas More's heroism on his defense of the rights of conscience. Blessed John Henry Newman, as I've posted before, defended the rights and outlined the responsibilities of conscience, properly understood, in reaction to English concerns about the doctrine of Papal Infallibility.

Sophie Scholl's birthday

Memorial to White Rose

On 22 February 1943, Sophie Scholl was guillotined by the Nazi Regime.  She and two other members of the White Rose resistance movement, her brother Hans Scholl and Christopher Probst, were executed for fighting against the tyranny of the State with words.
  
Today would have been Sophie Scholl's 90th birthday.

Fr Dermot has a scholarly interest in Sophie Scholl and the White Rose resistence movement, particularly in the influence and great inspiration of Blessed John Henry Newman on the movement.      

Here is an extract from Fr Dermot Fenlon's paper "From the White Star to the White Rose.  J.H. Newman and the Conscience of the State".

Newman's question, Haecker's pedagogy, Hartnagel's testimony: it is not idle to speak of prophetic witness.  Science without God, education without a heart, produced its nemesis in the Third Reich.  The White Rose struggled to resist it.  But for the Rose to flower there was need, not of the blood of students.  There was need of the blood of Christ, interceding for a fallen humanity.  Haecker, Muth, Edith Stein: the school of Newman was the seed ground nurturing a small and heroic movement of German writers, some of whome stand to us as saints and martyrs bearing the witness of effective intercession through the power of Christ's Passion, the source of salvation in the night of terror.  Christopher Probst, together with Fritz Hartnagel, belongs to that moment of witness.  Willi Graf and Kurt Huber found their way into this company of saints.  Hans Scholl?  If we are to believe his sister Inge, his request to be received into the Catholic Church points in the same direction.  And Sophie?


One of Sophie Scholl's letters



Sophie Scholl is singular.  Her letters, from the invasion of France in 1940, disclose a spiritual evolution breathtaking in its sensitivity, sincerity and depth.  It is not an exaggeration to suggest that these letters entitle her to recognition as a writer in the company of Anne Frank or Simone Weil.  It must never be forgotten that it was through her influence, her letters and her personal gifts that Fritz Hartnagel found in Newman those 'drops of precious wine' that brought him to the testimony of truth in the horror of the Russian Holocaust.  After the war FritzHartnagel married Sophie's sister Elisabeth.  He insisted Sophie should not be commemorated as a saint.  Her letters make it clear that Sophie would have been the first to agree.  Hartnagel's fidelity to the truth of her memory, his refusal to simplify or exaggerate, are exemplary, and should remain exemplary for us.  Because of Sophie Scholl he became, without knowing it, on the Russian front at Mariupol in 1943, the decisive recipient of Germany's kairos for Newman.  We should all keep his name before us in our prayers.

In the darkness of Hitler's Germany, Newman brought home to those prepared to hear, the presence, power and redemptive realiy of the Cross of Christ. 

(taken from Internationale Cardinal-Newman-Studien Vol 20 pp.72)

Fr Dermot Fenlon was present at the launch of Frank McDonough's biography of Sophie Scholl on 22 February 2010 and is personally thanked in the author's acknowledgements.  

In April 2010 Fr Dermot Fenlon attended the funeral of Christoph Probst's son Michael in Bavaria.  There was a profusion of white roses at his gravesite.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols visits Monument to White Rose Movement

www.ccee.ch



Monument to the members of

the Whilte Rose Movement 



His Excellency, Monsignor Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster has this weekend attended the CCEE European Congress on University Pastoral Care, presiding over the CCEE Committee Catechesis-School-University, which took place in Munich. 

During the weekend, delegates watched the film Sophie Scholl - the Final Days.  They also visited the Monument to the members of the White Rose Movement.   

Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl & Christoph Probst

were executed by guillotine on 22nd February 1943

Fr Dermot Fenlon, who has an interest in Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Movement, has spoken of the link between the movement and Cardinal John Henry Newman.  In a speech given at the international symposium on Newman in Milan, March 2009, Fr Fenlon explained that Sophie, a Lutheran, was introduced to the works of Newman by a scholar called Theodor Haecker, who had written to the Birmingham Oratory in 1920 asking for copies of Newman's work, which he wanted to translate into German.

Monument in front of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where

Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl and Christophe Probst distributed resistence leaflets.

Letter of support from Dr. Frank McDonough

To Whom it may Concern,

I first met Father Dermot Fenlon in August 2009 when he showed me around Newman’s study at the Oratory. I was deeply impressed by him as a person, a committed man of God and a scholar.

I invited him to the launch of my critically acclaimed book entitled: Sophie Scholl: The Woman Who Defied Hitler in Liverpool in February 2010, which tells the story of one of Germany’s most brave and important resistance figures who died fighting the unjust and inhumane Nazi regime.

I find the extended exile of Father Fenlon to be completely unjustified. This decision needs re-thinking urgently as it infringes the basic human rights and the free movement of a good and decent man. His continued enforced exile and the publicity surrounding it which is growing does no credit to the reputation of the Catholic Church in the broader community in Britain and it damages its international reputation.

I urge you to re-think this decision and allow Father Fenlon - who is serving a sentence, but has committed no crime, to return to the Oratory to carry on his good work.

Yours sincerely

Dr. Frank McDonough

Author of ‘Sophie Scholl’

Liverpool

15 September 2010

Press Release: "... In the Corridors of Death"

PRESS RELEASE – Jakob Knab - 15 September 2010

... in the Corridors of Death.


All his life Rev. Dr. Dermot Fenlon C. O. has been preaching and fighting for the sanctity of life. Now his frail health is deteriorating. Those nefarious structures of authority are going to ruin his life in the “corridors of death”.

But at the same time the initial step has been taken for an appeal at the Cour Européenne des Droits de l'Homme - European Court of Human Rights by faithful friends of Father Fenlon. They are fighting for the life of Fr Dermot Fenlon.

Let us pray to Our Lady of Sorrows:

Help your humble servant Father Dermot Fenlon.

Bring him home to his beloved Birmingham Oratory.

SUB TUUM PRAESIDUUM CONFUGIMUS

Warning to all those little “devils in disguise“ round the globe:

We will not be silent.

We are your bad conscience.

We will not leave you in peace!

Message from Jakob Knab

Jakob Knab is a leading German historian on Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Resistance Movement

Dear friends of Father Fenlon,

Please send your complaints, petitions and supplications to:

          Father Felix Selden C.O., Delegate of the Apostolic See, Confederation of the Oratory
          p.felix@oratorium.at

At the same time send a copy to:

          P. Edoardo Aldo Cerrato C.O., Procurator Generalis
          cerrato@oratoriosanfilippo.org

And finally send a copy to Simon Caldwell (Catholic Herald)
          simon@catholicherald.co.uk

One of the fundamental rights of European citizens: Any citizen, acting individually or jointly with others, may at any time exercise his right of petition to the European Parliament under Article 194 of the EC Treaty.
Contact:

          European Parliament

          Committee on Petitions
          The Secretariat
          Rue Wiertz
          B-1047 Brussels

And please pray with me:

We fly to thy protection, O holy Mother of God.
Despise not our petitions in our necessities,
but deliver us always from all dangers
O glorious and blessed Virgin.