"Reinhard Heydrich was, along with Bormann, one of the regime's most adamant anti-Christians. When two Free Czech agents killed Heydrich in Prague in 1942, Nazi anticlerical ism lost one of its most effective partisans. However, his hatred of the churches was not regarded as a necessary precondition to succeed him as head of the Reich Security Main Office. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the head of the Austrian SS, took over this position in 1943. He considerably relaxed Heydrich's anticlerical campaign, already toned down for the sake of the war. This was not just a strategic consideration: According to one of his former associates, Kaltenbrunner did not understand how Heydrich "could harbor such a deadly hatred of the [Catholic] Church." If Kaltenbrunner was not a practicing Catholic, neither had he left the church. In fact, of all his brothers - all involved in the Nazi movement as he was - he was the only one not to leave the church. Although Kaltenbrunner persecuted clergy who attacked the Nazi State and professed his opposition to "political Catholicism," he had no patience for Heydrich's anticlerical schemes. At the same time that he was busily doing his best to bring the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" to its genocidal climax, he disbanded Department IVB ("religious opponents") within the Gestapo, established by Heydrich headed by Albert Hartl, an ex-priest who had turned against his church. Hartl's activities included penetration of Catholic circles and the collection of intelligence. As part of his resentment for being defrocked, he also conjured up schemes for infiltrating the Catholic Church, including sending Nazis into the priesthood to nazify the clergy from within.
— The Holy Reich, p.251-252
— The Holy Reich, p.251-252