If the Pope does this, I say the answer is yes:
UPDATE 10:00 pm 1-24-09: The Pope Did IT. The Church Of The Inquisition Has Returned.
UPDATE 2: SIGN THE PETITION ASKING ISRAEL TO DENY THE POPE'S VISA REQUEST.
Holocaust-denial remarks stir new dispute for Vatican
Its ties with Jews risked a crisis over comments by an excommunicated British bishop.
By Victor L. Simpson
Associated Press
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican's relations with Jews risked a new crisis yesterday after an excommunicated British bishop - reportedly in line for rehabilitation - said historical evidence "is hugely against six million Jews having been deliberately gassed" during World War II.
Two Italian newspapers reported Thursday that Pope Benedict XVI planned to lift the excommunication of Richard Williamson and three other bishops punished for having been consecrated without papal consent 20 years ago by conservative French Archbishop Marcel Lefevbre.
The Vatican declined to comment on the reports, but a spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, suggested yesterday that such a decree would be made public soon.
Rome's chief rabbi, Ricardo Di Segni, asked the Vatican to halt the reported rehabilitation. The rabbi said it was "inconceivable" the pope did not know Williamson's views.
The International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consulation also urged that the excommunications of all four - and especially Williamson - not be lifted, saying they were all opposed to pursuing relations with Jews, Protestants and Muslims.
Vatican-Jewish relations had already been strained by Jewish criticism of Pius XII, the pontiff during World War II who is accused by some of not speaking out in a bid to head off the Holocaust. And Israeli officials recently took offense when a senior cardinal said Gaza under the Israeli offensive seemed like a "big concentration camp."
Williamson made his comments in an interview with Swedish state TV while in Germany in November; the broadcast aired Wednesday.
He said the Nazis did not use gas chambers.
"I believe that the historical evidence ... is hugely against six million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler," he said.
He cited what he called the "most serious" revisionists, who he said had concluded that "200,000 to 300,000 perished in Nazi concentration camps, but not one of them by gassing in a gas chamber."
Vatican officials declined yesterday to comment on his remarks.
The Pope was, as a child, a member of the Hitler Youth. He has spent much of his adult life working against hatred of that sort, and for reconciliation between the Church and Jews, Protestants and others.
Williamson belongs to an order that rejects Vatican 2 and the Church's reconciliation with Jews.
If the Pope rehabilitates this antisemitic Holocaust denier, Catholic-Jewish relations should be immediately put on hold – perhaps forever.
That means no more conferences, no more trips to the Vatican, no more welcoming the Pope on his travels, and no visa for the Pope to visit Israel.
Just as Jews carry a responsibility for what Jewish leaders do, Catholics carry responsibility for what the Pope does.
The proper response, I believe, is to publicly speak out against the Pope's decision to rehabilitate Williamson if he makes it.
I know it is a lot to ask. I also know many Jews have failed to do this when our religious leaders have made poor choices.
But being difficult to do does not remove the responsibility to do it.
6 million Jews died, a large number of them because ancient Christian hatreds were harnessed by the Nazis to use against them.
The Church bears responsibility for that, and has accepted it. But reconciling with an unrepentant, antisemitic Holocaust denier destroys all the good work done by John Paul 2.
I've long argued the Church did much to save Jews during the Holocaust and that the then-Pope tried to stop antisemites in the Church from cooperating with the Nazis genocide.
I am by no means anti-Catholic.
But Jews should not treat Williamson's rehabilitation as a slight. We should treat Williamson's rehabilitation as a full frontal assault against all Jews everywhere.
And that means Pope Benedict and his Cardinals should be excluded from polite discourse with us – and with anyone who cares about us – until a new Pope sits on the throne in the Vatican.
UPDATE 10:00 pm 1-24-09: The Pope Did IT. The Church Of The Inquisition Has Returned.
UPDATE 2: SIGN THE PETITION ASKING ISRAEL TO DENY THE POPE'S VISA REQUEST.