My information is that the Catholic Church ceased support of the Nazis at the end of the war. Tell us what you know?
en.wikipedia.org
Early efforts: Bishop Hudal[edit]
Austrian Catholic bishop
Alois Hudal, a Nazi sympathiser, was rector of the
Pontificio Istituto Teutonico Santa Maria dell'Anima in
Rome, a seminary for
Austrian and
German priests, and "Spiritual Director of the German People resident in Italy".
[14] After the end of the war in Italy, Hudal became active in ministering to German-speaking
prisoners of war and internees then held in camps throughout Italy. In December 1944, the
Vatican Secretariat of State received permission to appoint a representative to "visit the German-speaking civil internees in Italy", a job assigned to Hudal.[
citation needed]
Hudal used this position to aid the escape of wanted Nazi
war criminals, including
Franz Stangl, commanding officer of
Treblinka;
Gustav Wagner, commanding officer of
Sobibor;
Alois Brunner, responsible for the
Drancy internment camp near Paris and in charge of deportations in Slovakia to German
concentration camps;
Erich Priebke, who was responsible for the
Ardeatine Massacre; and
Adolf Eichmann—a fact about which he was later unashamedly open.
[15][16] Some of these wanted men were being held in internment camps: generally without identity papers, they would be enrolled in camp registers under false names. Other Nazis hid in Italy and sought Hudal out as his role in assisting escapes became known on the Nazi grapevine.
[17]
According to Aarons and Loftus, Hudal's private operation was small scale compared to what came later. The major Roman ratline was operated by a small but influential network of
Croatian priests, members of the
Franciscan order, led by Father
Krunoslav Draganović, who organised a highly sophisticated chain with headquarters at the
San Girolamo degli Illirici Seminary College in Rome, but with links from Austria to the final embarcation point at the port of
Genoa. The ratline initially focused on aiding members of the Croatian
Ustaše including its leader (or
Poglavnik),
Ante Pavelić.
[22]
Priests active in the chain included: Fr. Vilim Cecelja, former Deputy Military Vicar to the
Ustaše, based in
Austria where many Ustashe and Nazi refugees remained in hiding; Fr. Dragutin Kamber, based at San Girolamo; Fr.
Dominik Mandić, an official
Vatican representative at San Girolamo and also "General Economist" or treasurer of the Franciscan order, who used this position to put the Franciscan press at the ratline's disposal; and
Monsignor Karlo Petranović, based in
Genoa. Vilim would make contact with those hiding in Austria and help them cross the border to Italy; Kamber, Mandić and Draganović would find them lodgings, often in the monastery itself, while they arranged documentation; finally, Draganović would phone Petranović in
Genoa with the number of required berths on ships leaving for South America (see
below).