Roman Catholics: New Pressures On Defregger

"The Defregger Affair" was in the news again. Three months ago Bishop Matthias Defregger, 54, of Munich, was publicly accused of having participated in the wartime executions of 17 men from the Italian village of Filetto di Camarda; Defregger, then a Wehrmacht captain, had passed on the execution order avenging the murder of one or more German soldiers. Authorities in Frankfurt eventually dropped the case. Last week, however, the Munich prosecutor had taken up the Defregger affair and was contemplating charges.

Defregger was also under renewed pressure from Rome. The Jesuit newspaper Civiltà Cattolica asked whether voluntary resignation might not be "more suitable both for the church and Defregger himself." The question was significant, since the Vatican often uses the paper to express its views. Munich's Julius Cardinal Döpfner announced that his auxiliary for the" time being would handle administrative responsibilities but not sacerdotal duties. Defregger himself entered a Munich hospital "for a thorough checkup and general rest."