Here is the YouTube recording of our online presentation about the moral corruption being observed and experienced under the current U.S. administration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2UpWsoccHg.
This video opens with historian, Dr. Jon Rosebank, offering salient points of how Adolf Hitler rose to power during the Nazi regime, and Marie Wilwerding Venner, from a family of German immigrants to the US, will discuss with her friend Hildegard Letbetter, born in 1939 Germany and moved to the U.S. in college, how she is witnessing close similarities in the U.S. under Donald Trump’s administration.
At the end of the 2nd World War, so many Germans said: “We didn’t know. We just didn’t know.” Our objective in this series is to serve as a wake call to Americans who may be going along with Donald Trump’s policies without realizing what is really happening. At the end of the Trump administration, we don’t want to see Americans saying the same thing: We just didn’t know….”
We encourage you to reach out to your American contacts who have the power to vote and invite them to just listen to this recording. We don’t want Trump’s term ending in four years with an irreversible oligarchy established, i.e., a form of government in which power rests with a small number of people, and Americans saying, “We didn’t know….”
Save this recording and share it with family and friends who might be open to just listening
What can we do about this situation?
Here are some of the suggestions that came from the participants:
1. Attend rallies, such as the “Hands off” rallies that were held last Sunday, April 7, where over 1400 rallies in major cities gathered millions of people in cities around the world: https://www.npr.org/sections/the-picture-show/2025/04/05/g-s1-58479/photos-see-hands-off-protests-trump-musk.
2. Help people in your circle of family and friends to “Be aware of what is happening.”
3. Share the recording of this event with those open to listening.
4. Silence is complicity with what is happening. Take action. Do something.
5. Pressure our Catholic Bishops to speak up about our social justice issues.
6. Write to Cardinal Robert McElroy, newly appointed bishop of Washington
D.C. Share your concerns with him:
5001 Eastern Avenue, Hyattsville, MD 20782
Mail: PO Box 29260, Washington, DC 20017-0260
Phone: 301-853-4500
Fax: 301-853-5300
7. Write to Episcopal Bishop Budde to thank her for having the courage to
stand up at the inaugural prayer service speaking truth to power as she
addressed Christian social justice issues to newly elected President Trump:
4216 Matthewson Dr. NW
Washington D.C. 20011
8. Download the App: 5 calls. It names specific issues being voted on in Congress and gives you the phone numbers of your representatives in the House and Senate.
9. Speak out about the list of over 300 books that have been banned from public libraries. Among them are authors such as Maya Angelo and Bryan Massingale, a black Catholic priest who teaches at Fordham University and has served as a consultant to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. His book, Racial Justice and the Catholic Church, has been banned by the Defense Dept administration in the Naval Academy among other public libraries. Other publications such as the New York Times have been banned. NPR is in serious jeopardy. Where is the Magisterium of the Catholic Church? Why aren’t they speaking up? Write to them and ask these questions.
10. Canadians’ economy is closely tied to the U.S. economy. Consequently, Canadians in particular are being encouraged to speak out and take action, e.g. contact your bishops and pressure them to speak out to their counterparts in the U.S.
11. Remember Jesus’ message: We as Christians are called to love our enemies as well as those dear to us. If you’re feeling hate toward anyone on the other side of this issue, instead pray for them. Hating them is a waste of energy.
12. People of faith speak up. Hold up your signs that reflect your faith values. Merge congregations. Standing up to this situation invites ecumenical collaboration.
13. Gather small groups together in your homes or on Zoom for discussions. There is no value in beating people over their heads with your perspective. Be open and be respectful. You’re welcome to use our CCRI Zoom room if you have no access on your own. Write to CCRI to request a time to reserve our Zoom room: info@CatholicChurchReform.com.
As Christians, we are called to stand up and be counted
If something violates our deep-seated values, we cannot surrender.
Lutheran leaders stood up to German Christians who supported Nazism
principle and began a movement of Christians who stood up to Nazi Christians called the Confessing Church during the Nazi regime. They stood up to the German Christians, a religious movement led by Nazi clergy whose goal was to bring the Lutheran church into line with the political and ideological goals of Hitler’s National Socialism.
Catholics played an equally strong role in supporting the rise of Hitler
Popes Pius XI (1922–1939) and Pius XII (1939–1958) led the Catholic Church during the rise and fall of Nazi Germany. Around a third of Germans were Catholic in the 1930s. The Catholic Church in Germany opposed the NSDAP, and in the 1933 elections, the proportion of Catholics who voted for the Nazi Party was lower than the national average. Nevertheless, the Catholic-aligned Centre Party voted for the Enabling Act of 1933, which gave Adolf Hitler additional domestic powers to suppress political opponents as Chancellor of Germany.
Consider what is happening today with Trump’s strong support from Christian Evangelicals, White Christian Nationalists, and newly formed groups like Catholics for Catholics
Christian organizations support for Trump – Search Videos – Search
Save this recording and share it with anyone who is open to . . . just listening.
We are grateful to our sponsors for this series: Spirit Unbounded (SU), the Int’l Catholic Reform Network (ICRN, the Association of German Catholic priests, Association of Austrian Catholic priests, Association of U.S. Catholic priests, Faithful America, and Catholic Church Reform Int’l (CCRI). On behalf of all of us,
Rene Reid, CCRI director