On March 21, with the religious freedom of German Catholics at grave risk, the concordat notwithstanding, Pope Pius XI issued the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge ("With Burning Concern"). In this missive, he questioned the errors of Nazi ideology. 'Whoever detaches the race, the nation, the state, the form of government...from the earthly frame of reference and makes them into the highest norm of all, higher than religious values, and worships them with idolatry, perverts and distorts the order of things provided and commended by God.' He made no specific mention of the plight of German Jewry.
