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Pope Brings Holocaust Bishop Richard Williamson Back Into Fold

by Tina Kells | January 26, 2009 at 11:11 am

867 views | 4 Recommendations | 3 comments

Bishop Richard Williamson, 68, and three other controversial bishops excommunicated by John Paul II in 1988 have been welcomed back into the Catholic fold by Pope Benedict XVI. The four renegade bishops were excommunicated by the church over two decades ago for denying the Nazi Jewish holocaust.

Catholic insiders say the reinstatement of the four holocaust deniers does not signal an anti-Semetic shift in the papacy but rather a desire by Pope Benedict XVI to reunite a divided church. The controversial move has been explained by the Vatican as a move to promote unity but critics fear that the gesture will alienate Jewish leaders and damage the inter-faith dialogue that was so successfully opened by John Paul II.

Over the weekend the Pope issued a decree welcoming back into the Roman Catholic Church Richard Williamson, 68, and three other breakaway bishops excommunicated by John Paul II in 1988. The bishops had been ordained without Vatican permission by the renegade French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

The Vatican decree referred to the need to overcome the “scandal of divisiveness” and seek reconciliation and “full communion” with Lefebvre’s order, the ultra-conservative Society or Fraternity of St Pius X. It lifted the excommunication not only of Bishop Williamson, rector of the Seminary of Our Lady Co-Redemptrix in La Reja, Argentina, but also of Bernard Fellay, the leader of the order, Alfonso de Gallareta, and Tissier de Mallerais.

Renzo Gattegna, head of the Union of Jewish Communities in Italy, said the rehabilitation of Bishop Williamson was “terrible not only for Jewish people but for the whole of humanity”. He said that Italian Jews would refuse to take part in joint prayers with Christians on Tuesday marking Holocaust Day, known in Italy as “The Day of Memory”.

Some Vatican officials are also saying privately that although the Pope’s stated aim was to unite the Church by bringing the rebels back into the fold, his move would have the opposite effect. “The Church will pay a price for this” one Vatican prelate said. “The Pope is undermining the legacy of John Paul II.”

Benedict’s actions are also reviving his old nickname when he was Cardinal Ratzinger — that of the “Panzerkardinal”, known for his hardline conservatism as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

“This is not so much an act of grace as a surrender,” the veteran Vatican watcher Marco Politi said.

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FPW (not verified)

at 11:14 on February 21st, 2009

I look at the blogs and find the Zionists and their media mind moulded mass are whipped up to being a lynch mob against Bishop R. Williamson for he dared to question the alleged holy holocaust, which reminds me of the the crucifiying of Christ because he was against the money lender bought priesthood and the Dark Ages when hysteriad Flat Earthers and the Earth is the Centre of Universe etc. and to Question the existence of a god, gloatingly burnt at the stake etc. any who dared to question their masters' indoctrinated 'truths.' As a Voltairian I ask: If the alleged holocaust is true why are our rulers so afraid to have it questioned, could it be that they are afraid of being proved liars, for truth gets only stronger the more it is questioned as it is self verifiable. FPW

PS I wonder if you have the guts to accept this dissident comment

Michael111 (not verified)

at 12:14 on February 24th, 2009

In the early years of the Holocaust, the Jews were primarily sent to concentration camps, but from 1942 they were mostly deported to extermination camps. About Holocaust from survivors see polishjews.org/shoah/index.htm

AlanF (not verified)

at 07:22 on June 3rd, 2009

"[The SSPX bishops] have been welcomed back into the Catholic fold by Pope Benedict XVI."

Wrong. They've had their contested excommunications lifted, which basically means they're allowed to go to Confession now.

"The four renegade bishops were excommunicated by the church over two decades ago for denying the Nazi Jewish holocaust."

Wrong again. They were "declared to have incurred automatic excommunication latae sententiae" for having been consecrated as bishops by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988.