The Vatican has demanded that a bishop who denied the Holocaust must recant his position before being fully readmitted into the Roman Catholic Church.
The Vatican also said in a statement Wednesday 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 last week.
The statement was issued by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State a day after the German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the pope to make a clearer rejection of Holocaust denials.
Among Bishop Williamson’s many anti-Semitic statements he’s made over the years denying the Holocaust, is his notorious statement in which the bishop claims that he has gathered evidence that “strongly questions if 6 million Jews were gassed”.
(Dov Gordon – YWN)
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This newspiece was the the second news item on the “Welcome” screen on AOL this morning.
If you believe the pope, I have a vatican to sell you!!
Um… 6 million Jews were *NOT* “gassed”.
Some were shot, burned alive, experimented on, buried alive, beaten to death, etc.
Why would he have known?
If he didn’t know what did he think he was excommunicated for?
“assur l’histakel pnie reshuim”
plz change the photo
4,maybe people are confusing infallibility with omniscience.
LET ME SEE! MOST OF US FOUND OUT BY WORLD NEWS
USA TODAY NYTIMES , SOME SORT OF WORLD NEWS OUT LIT.
NO HE DID KNOW!! HE KNOWS NOW, HE JUST DOES NOT WANT THAT CURSE TO COME ON HIM . SO HE FIGURES IF
HE PLAYS STUPID HE,LL GET AWAY WITH IT.
HE DIDN,T KNOW WORLD WAR 11 HAPPEN ETHER UNTILL NOW.
I HAVE SOME OTHER NEWS FOR HIM.
THAT MAN WHO THEY WHORSHIP ON A CROSS IS NOT G-D.
NOR IS HE A SAVIOR . BUT WAS A JEW. IT WAS SOME OF HIS RALATIVES THAT YOUR DENYING BISHOP SAYS DID NOT GET BURNED IN NATZI OVENS. AND JEWISH RABBI,S BEATEN ABUSED KILLED. HOLY TORAHS BURNED.
JEWISH CHILDREN KILLED OVER A MILLION
IN THE HOLOCAUST . MOTHERS KILLED WITH UNBORN
JEWS STILL IN THE WOMB THIS HE DON,T KNOW!
RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!
Had J C lived in Germany or Poland in 1939,he would not have been crucified on a cross but shot,or gassed;killed by nazi criminals for being Jewish.(It also would not have been 1939)
What, is this pope the Richard Nixon of popes?
I have a “kasha”: Isnt the reason he was in jail in the first place because he is a Holocaust denier? So how can the Pope say he did not know?
Bishop Richard Williamson was not excommunicated because of his Holocaust denial. He was excommunicated because he was ordained as a bishop by a schismatic priest, in opposition to the Pope at the time. It had nothing to do with his anti-Semitic ideas. Williamson is an ultra-traditionalist who opposes the reforms of the Vatican II council. However, it is very difficult for the Pope to claim that he didn’t know about Williamson’s Holocaust denial. He has been denying the Holocaust publically since the 1980s and making other outrageous anti-Semitic and anti-American claims, like that the US government planned the 9/11 attacks….
#8 A very powerful post…thank you for saying what you did so well. I agree with all you said.
also #9 yours too makes a great point as does poster #12
and #2 great line!!
Denying the Holocaust is not a reason to excommunicate someone. As some Church spokesman or other said last week, Williamson is not a heretic, just a liar.
#12, just because Williamson has been making these outrageous statements for a long time doesn’t mean the Pope would have heard of them. They weren’t that widely reported; had *you* heard of them before last week? I’m sure the Pope has better things to do with his time than follow what every rebel and nutcase has to say.
In any case, even if he had known, he’d still have lifted the excommunication, because being a liar and a Holocaust denier is not a valid reason not to lift it. Once he’d decided to try to make peace with the rebels, this was the logical thing to do; you can’t expect someone in excommunication to make peace. Williamson still hasn’t got a license to practise, and he won’t get one with his current views.
Liar liar pacifier … but that can happen if you think the man hanging on a stick in a pamper is God.
Once read the truth,
Christians worship dead jews
Many of them hate live ones.
Yes, Mr. Pope, I believe in the Tooth Fairy too.
#2, keep in mind that the people this pope dude has to normally convince beleive that G-d came down from heaven, and had a baby with “Mary” who was a virgin at the time.
Then they believe that this mamzer was both a son of G-d and actualy G-d himself in some way.
The Roman church also diefies Mary.
This foolishness about the virgin birth was stolen from a popular pagan religions of those days, which the uneducated in Rome believed in. The church was able to make them believe this narishkeit because it sounded like their Mithra stories which predicted this.
Then, they go on to sell the concept that G-d was murdered by crucifixion, and then, 3 days later rose from the dead, and appeared to his diciples, etc.,
So, be real, those who would believe this as the foundation of their faith, can be sold anything, including that the Pope did not know.
What is funny, is that the Pope is supposed to be a semi-diety himself.
(sorry ’bout the typos. Too tired to go up and change them)
If he knew (and of course he did) he’s a rasha and if he didn’t know he’s stam an idiot (he is).
i thought the pope had a direct line with his boss?!
YEMACH SHEMO V”ZICHROI
The pope didnt really care as he was a member of the authentic (not neo) nazi (ys) hitler (ys) youth group. Coupled with the history of the Catholic Church, why should he care on his own accord? The Church had members that over the long haul of history spilled more blood than the third reich, in the name of THEIR movement.
#21 Again with this Hitler Youth thing. Yes, he was a member, as was every German boy over the age of 14. So what? How does that tell us ANYTHING about his character or opinions? How does it make him an antisemite, or in any way a bad person? These accusations against him are pure slander, and the people making them should feel ashamed of themselves.
#18 Why would he have occasion to know? And if he did know, why does that make him a rasha? Why should Williamson’s being a Holocaust denier stop his excommunication from being lifted? Nobody has yet answered that. As a Vatican spokeman said last week, Williamson is now no longer a heretic, but he’s still a liar. Being a liar is not grounds for excommunication, or there would be a lot fewer Catholics at communion!
#19, what made you think that? He’s certainly never claimed it, and nor has any pope.
I missed this one:
#17: “What is funny, is that the Pope is supposed to be a semi-diety himself.” Huh? Since when? Who supposes this? Certainly no Catholic has ever supposed it or claimed it, so where on earth are you coming up with this? What, because it’s the Avi Avois, you’re allowed to make things up? Midvar sheker tirchok doesn’t apply any more? Letzonus of avoda zarah is permitted, but lies and slander?
#22, Millhouse.
As far as I am concerned, you need not say more on this matter.
You state, in regards to the pope being a hitler (ys) youth, “Again, as with this Hitler Youth “thing”. Yes, he was a member.”
The pope knew and did not care because he is the brand of catholic that really has no interest in Jewish concerns, if not being an actual catholic who felt collaboration with the nazis was a just thing. Keeping in mind other catholics who risked their lives to save Jews. On this matter, he got caught and had to reverse. DO YOU REALLY THINK HE DID NO KNOW THE REASON WHY HE WAS REVERSING AN EXCOMMUNICATION?? Stop it.
Millhouse, the only justification I can see for you posting as you have been is that you are worried what gentile onlookers, to this site, might say or how they may react. I will assume that is your motive.