As the Treaty of Versailles had forbidden Germany from raising a large army, this provision may have been seen by Hitler as the Vatican giving its tacit approval to German rearmament.[1] Papen wrote to Hitler regarding this secret provision and concluded his brief with "I hope this agreement will therefore be pleasing to you".[47] The provisions of the annexe were inserted at the request of the German Bishops Fulda Conference and the contents were kept so secret that Ernst von Weizsacker, State Secretary in the Foreign Ministry from 1938, did not know of it until informed by the Papal Nuncio Orsenigo in 1939.[2]