Meanwhile, although the Protestant churches, being local congregations, remained unaffected by restrictions on foreign support, Hitler's government negotiated other agreements with them which in essence put Nazi officials, most of whom were Catholics, into positions of influence or outright authority over Protestant churches. Foreseeing the potential for outright State control of their churches which these agreements portended, many Protestant church leaders simply reorganized their congregations out of the agreements, causing a schism within the Protestant Churches. These Protestant resisters attempted to rally Catholic prelates to the dangers portended by these agreements but were simply rebuffed when the "Reichskonkordat" was ratified. Many of the Protestant clergy who opposed the Nazi religious program ("Bekennende Kirche" or Confessing Church) later suffered imprisonment or execution. Church leaders were realistic about the concordat's supposed protections. Cardinal Faulhaber is reported to have said: "With the concordat we are hanged, without the concordat we are hanged, drawn and quartered." After the signing of the concordat the papal nuncio exhorted the German bishops to support Hitler's régime. The bishops told their flocks to try to get along with the Nazi régime. According to Michael Phayer, the concordat prevented Pius XI from speaking out against the Nazi Nuremberg Laws in 1935, and though he did intend to speak out after the nationwide pogrom of 1938, Cardinal Pacelli dissuaded him from doing so. On 20 August 1935 the Catholic Bishops conference at Fulda reminded Hitler that Pius XI had: exchanged the handshake of trust with you through the concordat – the first foreign sovereign to do so. ... Pope Pius spoke high praise of you. ... Millions in foreign countries, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, have overcome their original mistrust because of this expression of papal trust, and have placed their trust in your regime. In a sermon given in Munich during 1937 Cardinal Faulhaber declared: At a time when the heads of the major nations in the world faced the new Germany with reserve and considerable suspicion, the Catholic Church, the greatest moral power on earth, through the Concordat, expressed its confidence in the new German government. This was a deed of immeasurable significance for the reputation of the new government abroad. The Treaty with Additional Protocol [in brackets] was signed 20 July 1933. It was ratified and in force starting 10 September 1933 and remains in force today. The text of the concordat was released 22 July 1933 and began with a preamble that set out the common desire of both parties for friendly relations set-out in a solemn agreement.