I actually laughed after reading this. How ridiculous! I realize I haven't been posting much lately, mostly due to school so that I do well enough this semester to, well, you'll have to wait for that one until I know the next step for sure. I don't want to get ahead of myself :) Anyway, from Breibart.com, my emphases and comments:
Call for pope to step down over Holocaust denier - Feb 2 03:21 PM US/Eastern
Attacks on Pope Benedict XVI's decision to lift the excommunication of a Holocaust denier escalated Monday, with one theologian calling on him to step down as the head of the Roman Catholic Church. [This is just an excuse for those people who are afraid of what he represents to attack the Pope, and the Church.]
Criticism following the pope's January 24 announcement has been particularly cutting in Germany, where denying the Holocaust is a crime punishable with a jail sentence.
"If the pope wants to do some good for the Church, he should leave his job," eminent liberal Catholic theologian Hermann Haering told the German daily Tageszeitung.
"That would not be a scandal, a bishop has to relinquish his position at 75 years, a cardinal loses his rights at 80 years," he said. Pope Benedict is 81. [Being an "eminent theologian" he should know better. He makes it sound like being a Bishop or Cardinal is merely a day job, when it is in fact so much more. Theses are the successors of the apostles themselves, who carry on apostolic succession, and teach their flocks. Yes, a pope can resign, but this would have far reaching consequences I think. It would add fire to "liberals" like this theologian to push their weight around. Our Holy Father would not resign just because of what a few talking heads have to say...]
Meanwhile, a senior Vatican official [Hmmm... Wonder why he doesn't want to give out his name? Besides, we have no idea how "senior" this person is.] acknowledged the Vatican administration may have made "management errors" with the decision to lift excommunication against four bishops, including Richard Williamson, whose comments sparked the controversy. [Again, making it sound like a corporation. The Church is not a business, and excommunications are not meant to be mere punishments, but as a way to encourage those who receive them to embrace Christ.]
"I observe the debate with great concern. There were misunderstandings and management errors in the Curia," said Cardinal Walter Kasper, who is in charge of the Vatican department that deals with Jewish relations.
"The Pope wanted to open the debate because he wanted unity inside and outside," the German cardinal told Vatican Radio.
He also noted that "these bishops are still suspended." [Indeed, the people who are crying out about this seem to conveniently forget this point. These Bishops are suspended, and have no ability to act in an official, licit, capacity within the Church.]
An international uproar followed the decision to rehabilitate Williamson, an English bishop who has dismissed as "lies" historical evidence that six million Jews were gassed by the Nazis during World War II. Jews and Catholics alike have produced widespread criticism.
"A pardon that tastes of poison," wrote Franco Garelli, an expert in religious history, in Italy's daily La Stampa Monday.
"The trouble caused by this complicated affair is evident not only outside the Church but within it," wrote the academic, who spoke of the "profound discomfort stirred up by the lifting of the excommunication in numerous Catholic [liberal] circles."
Back in Germany, high-ranking Catholic officials said the pope risked losing vital support. [While support is indeed important, exactly whose support does he need? He is the vicar of Christ on Earth! Besides, I'd be willing to say that he has a lot of support, and those willing to not support him, were just fishing for reasons anyway.]
"There is obviously a loss of confidence" [Again, making it sound like some world government or corporation.] in the pope and "rehabilitating a denier is always a bad idea," the bishop of Hamburg, Werner Thissen, told the daily Hamburger Abendblatt on Monday.
The bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Gebhard Furst, meanwhile spoke of his "uncertainty, incomprehension and deception" in the national Bild.
In France, home to Europe's largest Jewish population, chief rabbi Gilles Bernheim denounced Williamson's remarks as "despicable" in an interview with Le Monde. [Which they indeed were.]
Williamson claimed that only between 200,000 and 300,000 Jews died before and during World War II, and none in the gas chambers.
French government spokesman Luc Chatel called Williamson's remarks "unacceptable, abject and intolerable."
In Austria, where Pope Benedict last week named a controversial ultra-conservative priest as auxiliary bishop in Linz, criticism also came from within the Church. [The priest they were referring to is Fr. Gerhard Wagner, who blamed Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans' immoral lifestyle, and mentioned that the rise in natural disasters may be due to the spiritual bankruptcy in America. While these disasters are horrible, and we pray for the loss of life, who knows why they are happening? But I bet this new Bishop would not even be mentioned were it not for the current controversies. Just people digging for more dirt to sling... By the way, it seems that this priest was just what the Diocese of Linz needed...]
Vienna's cardinal and archbishop, Christoph Schoenborn, on Sunday lashed out at the decision to bring Williamson back into the fold, saying that "he who denies the Holocaust cannot be rehabilitated within the Church."
Belgian daily La Libre Belgique slammed the Vatican's "blindness" and "deafness," drawing links between Williamson and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"Apparently no one can make the Iranian president and his henchman see reason" when they deny the "truth" of the Holocaust, and it is the same with the "bishop recently anointed [They make it sound like the Pope personally approves of this guys views! More on that in a few sentances...] by the highest authority of the Catholic Church," it said.
For the pope, the "blunder is extraordinary, especially given that his willingness for a dialogue with Judaism is indisputable," said French daily Liberation.
For the record, Pope Benedict has been an awesome leader in talks with Jews, and in encouraging Jewish-Catholic relations. It needs to be remembered that:
1. These excommunications were lifted before widespread knowledge of Williamson's remarks came to light.
2. The excommunications existed because they denied the authority of the Pope, and were illicitly ordained. The excommunications were not there due to someone's personally held beliefs about the holocaust.
3. The Bishops are still suspended! The excommunications were merely another step in the dialogue with the SSPX. There is still a lot of ground to cover, and I am sure it will be...
4. There will be repercussions for Williamson, as there should be...
Many people are just using this as an excuse to attack the Holy Father and the Church, as Fr. Z points out. We must continue praying dear friends for this situation. We must pray for the Society of St. Pius X, that they may speedily return to full communion with Holy Mother Church, and for Bishop Williamson, and the horrible remarks he has made...
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