Alois Hudal

The Most Reverend Alois Hudal
Titular Bishop of Aela
Photograph of Hudal from the title page of his book The Foundations of National Socialism (1937)
Church	Roman Catholic Church
Installed	1933
Term ended	1963
Predecessor	Charles-Marie-Félix de Gorostarzu
Successor	Trịnh Văn Căn
Other posts	Rector of Collegio Teutonico (1923-1952)
Orders
Ordination	July 1908
Consecration	June 1933 by Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII)
Personal details
Born	(1885-05-31)31 May 1885 Graz, Austria-Hungary
Died	13 May 1963(1963-05-13) (aged 77) Italy
Alma mater	University of Graz Collegio Teutonico
Signature

Alois Hudal (also known as Luigi Hudal; 31 May 1885 – 13 May 1963) was an Austrian titular bishop in the Roman Catholic church, based in Rome. For thirty years, he was the head of the Austrian-German congregation of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome and, until 1937, an influential representative of the Austrian Catholic Church.

In his 1937 book, The Foundations of National Socialism, Hudal praised Adolf Hitler and his policies and indirectly attacked Vatican policies. After World War II, Hudal helped establish the ratlines, which allowed prominent Nazi German and other European former Axis officers and political leaders, among them accused war criminals, to escape Allied trials and denazification.

Alois Hudal was born on 31 May 1885, the son of a shoemaker in the Austrian city of Graz, where he studied theology from 1904 through 1908. He was ordained to the priesthood in July 1908. A professorship promised to him at the University of Vienna did not materialize.

Hudal became a noted specialist on the liturgy, doctrine and spirituality of the Slavic-speaking Eastern Orthodox Churches while a parish priest in Kindberg. In 1911, he earned a Doctor of Sacred Theology at the University of Graz. After completing his doctorate, he entered the Teutonic College of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome where he was a chaplain (1911–1913), attending courses in Old Testament at the Pontifical Biblical Institute. He took his Doctor of Sacred Scripture degree with a dissertation on Die religioesen und sittlichen Ideen des Spruchbuches ("The Religious and Moral Ideas of the Book of Proverbs"), published in 1914. He joined the faculty for Old Testament Studies at the University of Graz in 1914. During the First World War, he was a military chaplain. In 1917, he published a book of sermons to the soldiers, Soldatenpredigten, in which he expressed the idea that "loyalty to the flag is loyalty to God", though also warning against "national chauvinism".