Bill Donohue won’t be pleased. That’s a good thing.
The Vatican demanded Wednesday that a bishop who denied the Holocaust recant his positions before being fully admitted into the Roman Catholic Church.
The Vatican also said in a statement that Pope Benedict XVI didn’t know about Bishop Richard Williamson’s views when he agreed to lift his excommunication and that of three other ultraconservative bishops Jan. 21.
The statement was issued by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State a day after German Chacellor Angela Merkel urged the pope to make a clearer rejection of Holocaust denials, saying there hadn’t been adequate clarification from the Vatican.
Williamson was shown on Swedish state television days before his rehabilitation was made public saying historical evidence “is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed” during World War II.
I don’t believe the pope didn’t know about these statements. They just didn’t think anybody would check.
UPDATE: German Chancellor Angela Merkel chimes in.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Pope Benedict XVI to make a “very clear” rejection of Holocaust denials after the Vatican’s rehabilitation of a former bishop who questioned whether 6 million Jews were gassed by the Nazis.
Merkel’s rare and public demand came amid increasing outrage among Germany’s Roman Catholic leaders over the German-born pope’s decision.
Merkel said she “does not believe” there has been adequate clarification of the Vatican’s position on the Holocaust amid the controversy over the lifting of the excommunication of British-born Richard Williamson.
I believe there’s no question that Pope Benedict XVI is one of the dirtiest scumbags in the world today.
Oliver, once again, you are absolutely correct….They just didn’t think anyone would check…
I certainly wonder, regardless of one’s religious beliefs, how anyone can say with a straight face that they belong to an organization led by a former member of the Hitler Youth and his childfucking minions.
He is literally the only former Nazi not in prison or permanent exile who got away with just “apologizing” for being a Nazi.
And the childfucking. Come on. How many thousands of kids does it have to be before it isn’t just a coincidence?
That the Catholics haven’t aggressively expelled every single member of their leadership from the bottom up and started from scratch is absolutely outrageous and, given the number of people who claim membership, positively
beggars belief.
Pope Benedict XVI didn’t know about Bishop Richard Williamson’s views when he agreed to lift his excommunication
One would think Benny16 would have thought to ask, “SO, why were these guys thrown out in the first place?”
Duros—Ratzinger was head of the renamed Office of the Inquisition (kinda like the FBI of the Catholic Church), so I have absolutely no doubt he knew exactly why Williamson and the others were excommunicated.
I feel that Ratzinger has a pre-Vatican II view of the Jews, and the ‘Jewish Question’ (what should the Church do/How should the Church treat them?)… What happened was a tragedy–time to move on…turn the page.
Pius XII remained silent and officially did nothing while millions the Church at the time had considered ‘undesirables’ were murdered, and the present Pope was, if not actually doing the killing, helped indirectly though his participation in the military ventures that took the land and initially rounded up the victims.
Regarding the reintegration of extreme conservatives into the Catholic Church, the Pope has a whole separate set of issues on his plate. The Bishop’s thoughts about Jews and the Holocaust probably were not on his radar, so I think it’s credible to say that Benedict was ignorant of those statements. You can say they should have thought about it more, and vetted this guy more carefully, but I don’t see why one should deny that Benedict didn’t know.
Finally, Benedict, as Ratzinger, wasn’t exactly a harcore Nazi. He was a teenager when the war ended and barely served in the military. Maybe teenagers should know better, but many don’t. I held racist attitudes as a teenager and I wasn’t even compelled by the government to be an idiot. It was entirely voluntary. Is that embarrassing? You betcha; but people change and grow up.
Of course, criticism about the molestation scandals is entirely warranted. I don’t know why anyone puts up with that crap. The flip side of that is I don’t understand why anyone bothers talking about Ratzinger’s time in the Hitler Youth and Wehrmacht. His adult career in the Catholic Church offers more than enough targets for criticism.
dood, I have no love for the church (or any church for that matter), but it may be unfair to label Ratz-o as helping the Nazis when it was mandatory for german kids to be in the Hitler Youth.
On the flip side, I think he did know about this bishop’s statements and didn’t think it was a big deal.
Which makes him just as evil.
“guy talk”-Ratz on Holocaust denial
“That the Catholics haven’t aggressively expelled every single member of their leadership from the bottom up and started from scratch is absolutely outrageous”
Revenantive, surely an unfortunate choice of words? Their obsession with boys from the bottom up has been their undoing.
I would LOVE to see the Catholic Church start from scratch, but I think it was tried once: The Reformation.
I am in the camp that is pretty sure that Joe knew about the statements, or might have known at some point, but reconciliation with the SSPX trumps all other considerations. Keep in mind that Williamson is only one of several bishops restored to the church. It strikes many people as interesting that Benedict is willing to make nice with these nutcases while ignoring decent Catholics who question church teaching on contraception. They are made to feel like outsiders while crazies like Williamson are given pride of place.
I left the Catholic Church for good about 3 years ago, in part because of the election of Benedict.
I think it was Jon Stewart who nailed the double standard last night. Paraphrasing, “So a guy who accepts the miraculous events of the Bible without question says that there is no evidence for the Holocaust?”
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