“How often was the divine service as such, also sermons, missions, Communion days, retreats, processions, pilgrimages, restricted for the most impossible reasons and made entirely impossible!
“Catholic literature, newspapers, periodicals, church papers, religious writings were stopped, books and libraries destroyed.
“What an injustice occurred in the dissolution of many Catholic societies, in the destruction of numerous church activities!
“Individual Catholic and Christian believers, whose religious confession was allegedly free, were spied upon, criticized on account of their belief, scorned on account of their Christian activity. How many religious officials, teachers, public and private employees, laborers, businessmen, and artisans, indeed, even peasants were put under pressure and terror! Many lost their jobs, some were pensioned off, others dismissed without pension, demoted, deprived of their real professional activity. Often enough such people who remained loyal to their convictions were discriminated against, condemned to hunger or tortured in concentration camps. Christianity and the Church were continually scorned and exposed to hatred.
“The apostasy movement found every assistance. Every opportunity was used to induce many to withdraw from the Church.”