Pope Benedict XVI has told Jewish leaders that any denial of the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable, especially if a priest does it.
Benedict just said during a meeting at the Vatican with about 60 American Jewish leaders that he is preparing to visit Israel.
The audience was scheduled after Benedict lifted the excommunication of a traditionalist bishop who denied the Holocaust, sparking outrage among Catholics and Jews alike.
Rabbi Arthur Schneier is leading the delegation. The rabbi is a Holocaust survivor and was host to the pope at his synagogue in New York in April.
Before todays meeting Schneier said he wants to thank Benedict for his commitment to strong Catholic-Jewish ties.
Schneier said the controversy was a temporary setback to relations between the two religions.
The Vatican says Benedict did not know about the views of Bishop Richard Williamson when he agreed to lift his excommunication and that of three other ultraconservative bishops last month.
The German-born Benedict issued his strongest condemnation yet of Holocaust denial during the meeting. He called the Holocaust a crime against humanity and affirmed the Catholic Church was “profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism.”
(Source: AP)
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12 Responses
Somehow hard to believe….
How can a Holocaust survivor be so Liberal?! I just don’t get it.
The Vatican is a political entity like any other. There are times where they set up a trial balloon to see how it plays out. This one fell flat …so now they are working on damage control. Could you imagine what might have happened it “rabbi” Stephan Wise (reform)would have allowed orthodox Rabbis access to the Vatican during World War II and they actually would have been able to have a collective voice? We must be vigilente. The Vatican has its own agenda.
Not so hard to believe. The Pope was focused on the guy belonging to an annoying breakaway group that was focused on a variety of canon law issues (such as use of Latin, role of women, etc.) rather than political issues. He knew the guy was a border line heretic (from the official church’s perspective) but had no reason to assume he was a fool as well.
Uh Rabbi Schneier. We have suffered enough with your making nicey nice to the Pope. Who appointed you the spokesman for the Jews.
And I agree with #1. I believe the Pope like a hole in the head.
So much for “Papal Infallibility”! 🙂
The Pope’s unequivocal disavowal of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial is definitely a positive development. We can only judge anyone by his words and actions, not by what we may suspect his thoughts are.
6, I heard a brief discussion of papal infallibility on a talk show. I believe it may not be appropriate to invoke it here. The correct theological term is “papal bull.”
#8 nfgo2,
I assume you meant to say “ex- hitler youth chief maysis umaydiach of 1,000,000,000 ovdei avodah zarah”.
#9, according to the en.wikipedia.org, the term ‘papal bull’ applies to documents. ‘Infallibility’, on the other hand, supposedly means that “the Pope is preserved from even the possibility of error”, something which clearly didn’t work too well in this case.
Thanks for trying to clarify things for me, just the same.
Cheers!
12, I knew that. It was a play on words that on reflection may not have been a good idea.
Please! Everyone else in the church knew Williamson denied the holocaust but the Pope? Not only that, but Williamson was actually excommuicated, in part, specifically, for a comment that, “Jews are bent on world domination.”
I am not alarmed by this Popes’ actions or lies. I could care less about this pope; especially this pope. And since he was a higher up before becoming a pope, I wonder what his stance was on the rampant, insidious, evil crimes committed against their children by their priests, who were protected by the church and relocated to other parishes to avoid prosecution.
Dont expect anything decent from the catholic church. There are many catholics who share that sentiment.