Rabbis Halt Vatican Talks over Holocaust-Truther Priest

[Rev.Cambeul]

Rabbis may halt Vatican talks over Holocaust-denying priest

Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent
The Guardian, Thursday 29 January 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/29/rabbis-vatican-pope-holocaust

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel has threatened to break off normal dialogue with the Vatican over its decision to lift the excommunication of a Catholic priest who claimed that no Jews died in gas chambers during the second world war.

In a letter to Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with Jewry, officials from Israel's supreme religious governing body warned that without a public apology from the priest it would be "very difficult to continue dialogue with the Vatican as before". The letter called on the priest, British-born Richard Williamson, to recant his "deplorable" statement.

The letter said: "You will appreciate that under such circumstances it would be wiser for us to postpone our next meeting in Rome at the beginning of March until this matter is clarified."

It is the fiercest criticism yet of the papal decree, issued last weekend, aimed at rehabilitating members of a traditionalist Catholic order - the Society of St Pius X - one of whose clerics is a Holocaust denier.

Williamson, who now lives in Argentina, had claimed in a television interview that historical evidence was "hugely against six million having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler ... I believe there were no gas chambers."

Alongside three bishops, Williamson was excommunicated 20 years ago after being consecrated by French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent.

The letter, signed by Oded Weiner, the director of the Chief Rabbinate, said: "Even if the move in itself was not intended in any way to relate to the church's relationship with the Jewish people, when it involves the embrace of someone who publicly expresses such odious and outrageous opinions, then it definitely does affect our relationship."

Yesterday Weiner told the Guardian the Rabbinate was demanding an explanation from the Vatican. "This relationship is very important for us and the Holy See. We have not cut ties with them. We are saying the matter has to be clarified. They are aware of the pain and sensitivity and they will consider it and send it up to the highest authorities."

His comments came as the pope made his first public remarks on interfaith relations. Referring to his recent commemoration of the Holocaust, he highlighted how at Auschwitz "millions of Jews were cruelly massacred, innocent victims of blind racial and religious hatred". At his weekly audience, yesterday Benedict XVI told thousands: "I once again affectionately express my full and indisputable solidarity with our brothers and sisters who received the first covenant. I trust that the memory of the Shoah will induce humankind to reflect upon the unpredictable power of evil when it conquers the heart of man."

The row, however, shows no immediate sign of abating. The Nobel peace prize winner and death camp survivor, Elie Wiesel, said that the pope, by lifting the excommunications, had given credence to "the most vulgar aspect of antisemitism".

In an interview with Reuters, Wiesel said: "What does the pope think we feel when he did that?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/judaism

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/race

[Rev.WillWilliams]

Cowardly Catholic Xians, that's who.

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel has threatened to break off normal dialogue with the Vatican over its decision to lift the excommunication of a Catholic priest who claimed that no Jews died in gas chambers during the second world war.

---

HAD QUESTIONED HOLY DOGMA

Bishop recants
denial of The Holocaust®

Following pressure from Israel's ambassador to the Holy See and a
blunt statement by Vatican spokesman Frederico Lombardi Friday
that "anyone who denies the Holocaust® denies the Christian faith
itself," dissident Bishop Richard Williamson bowed before this holiest
of Church dogmas and recanted his earlier remarks questioning the
accuracy of Jewish casualty figures during the Second World War.
   
Bishop who denied Holocaust® apologizes to pope
By FRANCES D'EMILIO
Associated Press  Saturday, 30 January 2009

VATICAN CITY — A bishop recently rehabilitated by Pope Benedict XVI
expressed regret Friday to the pontiff for the "distress and problems"
he caused by denying the Holocaust®.

In a letter to the Vatican, Bishop Richard Williamson, who recently
denied in a TV interview that 6 million Jews were murdered during
the Holocaust®, called his remarks "imprudent."

The letter was posted on Williamson's personal blog and addressed
to Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, who has been dealing with the
rehabilitation of Williamson and other renegade bishops who had been
excommunicated.

The Holocaust® denial had outraged Jewish groups and many others.
It was not immediately clear if Williamson's letter, which contained no
apology for the content of his remarks, would ease that anger.

"Amidst this tremendous media storm stirred up by imprudent remarks
of mine on Swedish television, I beg of you to accept, only as is
properly respectful, my sincere regrets for having caused to yourself
and to the Holy Father so much unnecessary distress and problems,"
Williamson wrote.

Israeli ambassador pleased with Vatican relations

Papal spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said he had "nothing to
say about this letter. Everyone can evaluate it as they see fit."

Lombardi said he didn't know if the pope or the cardinal had seen it.

The bishop in the letter also offered the pope his "sincere personal
thanks" for lifting the excommunication.

The Vatican had imposed the Church's most severe discipline,
excommunication, on Williamson and three other bishops 20 years ago
because they had been elevated to bishop's rank by a renegade,
ultraconservative prelate, the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

In his letter on the blog, Williamson promised to "offer a Mass" for
Benedict and Castrillon Hoyos.

Earlier Friday, Israel's ambassador to the Holy See, Mordechai Levy,
said the Jewish state has good relations with the Vatican, despite
the flap over Williamson's comments.

The four rehabilitated bishops belong to the ultraconservative Society
of St. Pius X, which Lefebvre founded because he rejected the
modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

Pressure from members of US Congress

On Wednesday, Benedict expressed what he called his unquestioned
solidarity with Jews and issued a stern warning against any denial
of the full horrors of the Nazi genocide.

In a letter dated Thursday, some 50 Catholic members of the US
Congress wrote to Benedict to express their "deep concerns" over
the pope's decision to reinstate Williamson while the bishop was
denying that the Holocaust® occurred.

"We do not question your reasons for revoking the excommunication
of Bishop Williamson or your right to do so, but we fail to understand
why the revocation was not accompanied by an emphatic public
rejection of his denial of the Holocaust®," the letter said.

The bishop's remarks about the Holocaust® "echo those of neo-Nazis,
Islamist extremists, racists and others who choose hatred and violence
over peaceful co-existence among peoples of all races and ethnicities,"
the lawmakers said, adding that they welcomed Benedict's expression
of solidarity with the Jewish people.

Benedict visited Washington during a pilgrimage to the United States
last spring.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=105&sid=1572733

[Sinn]

Is it just me or do other people here generally think that any kind of diplomacy with jews is a waste of time ?

[Albert]

I was struck that the difference between Judaism and Christianity was exposed. The Pope so forgiving, the Jews so hateful and vengeful.

[Rev.WillWilliams]

I was struck that the difference between Judaism and Christianity was exposed. The Pope so forgiving, the Jews so hateful and vengeful.

We outnumber the Jew at least 30:1 in the US. We are the sleeping wolf NOT a flock of docile Xian lambkins. And as Klassen used to like to say, "The wolf does not feed the bunny rabbit." It's just not natural.