Gaskammern geleugnet: Vatikan fordert Widerruf
DIE PRESSE: Der britische Bischof Williamson soll sich "eindeutig und öffentlich" von seinen Aussagen zum Holocaust distanzieren, verlangt der Vatikan. Sonst werde er nicht voll in die Kirche aufgenommen.

Der Vatikan hat den traditionalistischen Bischof Richard Williamson am Mittwoch aufgefordert, seine Leugnung des Holocaust zu widerrufen. Williamson solle sich "eindeutig und öffentlich" von seinen Äußerungen distanzieren, bevor er wieder voll in die Kirche aufgenommen werden könne, hieß es in einer Erklärung des Vatikan. Noch wenige Stunden zuvor hatte der Papst bei seiner wöchentlichen Generalaudienz im Vatikan keinen Kommentar zur Causa Williamson abgegeben. >>> DiePresse.com | Mittwoch, 4. Februar 2009

HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Vatican: Holocaust Denier Must Recant

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican demanded Wednesday that a bishop who denied the Holocaust recant his positions before being fully admitted into the Roman Catholic Church.

The Vatican also said in a statement 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 Jan. 21.

The statement was issued by the Vatican's Secretariat of State a day after German Chacellor Angela Merkel urged the pope to make a clearer rejection of Holocaust denials, saying there hadn't been adequate clarification from the Vatican.

Williamson was shown on Swedish state television days before his rehabilitation was made public saying historical evidence "is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed" during World War II. >>> By Nicole Winfield Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated Press | Wednesday, February 4, 2009

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Le Vatican demande à Richard Williamson de renier ses propos

POLÉMIQUE | L’évêque intégriste négationniste Richard Williamson doit "prendre sans équivoque et publiquement ses distances" avec ses déclarations sur la Shoah a annoncé mercredi le Vatican.

Le Vatican a aussi affirmé dans un communiqué que le Pape Benoît XVI n’était pas informé des propos tenus par l’évêque britannique qui a nié l’existence des chambres à gaz, lorsqu’il a accepté de lever son excommunication en même temps que celle de trois autres prêtres intégristes la semaine dernière.

Mgr Richard Williamson s’est excusé depuis auprès du pape pour la «peine et les problèmes» qu’il a causés par ses propos, mais il ne s’est pas rétracté.

Les mouvements juifs ont salué le communiqué du Vatican, affirmant qu’il satisfaisait leur principale demande. «C’était le signe que le monde juif attendait», a déclaré Ronald Lauder, président du Congrès juif mondial. Mardi, la chancelière allemande Angela Merkel avait appelé Benoît XVI à exprimer un rejet «très clair» du négationnisme. >>> AP | Mercredi 04. Février 2009

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Pope's PR Men Have Put His Future at Risk
THE TELEGRAPH: Lifting the ban on the Holocaust denying Bishop Williamson is disastrous, says Damian Thompson.

The night before Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications on the Holocaust denier Richard Williamson and the other bishops of the ultra-traditionalist Society of St Pius X (SSPX), I emailed a friend in Rome with close links to the papal household. I said: "You do know how awful this is going to look, don't you?" He replied: "Yes, but it's too late."

This week, the future of Benedict's pontificate hangs in the balance. For those of us who regard him as the greatest pope of modern times, this is little short of a tragedy. In the last 18 months, he has reintegrated Latin services into the life of the Church. Orthodox Catholics are thrilled by his intellectually dazzling project to renovate the Church's liturgy. Thousands of Anglicans will cross the Tiber as soon as the Vatican can find a way of protecting them from unsympathetic RC bishops.

Meanwhile, the haughty prelates of the SSPX are finally prepared to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Second Vatican Council, which modernised the Catholic Church in the 1960s. Only Benedict XVI could have achieved this.

But the Williamson fiasco – the incompetence of the Vatican communications service in failing to anticipate the outcry, and the sluggish response – has given Benedict's enemies the opportunity they have been waiting for. Far from being alarmed by the lifting of the excommunications, many liberals are happy to sit back and watch "the Ratzinger project" unravel. >>> Damian Thompson* | Tuesday, February 3, 2009

*Damian Thompson is editor-in-chief of 'The Catholic Herald'

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Vatican Admits 'Errors' in Rehabilitating Bishop Who Questioned Holocaust
The Vatican has conceded for the first time that it may have made 'errors' in its rehabilitation of a British bishop who questioned the Holocaust.

A senior Vatican official acknowledged that the Holy See made "management errors" with its decision to lift the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson, who has said that the Nazis did not use gas chambers to kill and that a maximum of 300,000 Jews, not six million, lost their lives.

Pope Benedict XVI's decision to rehabilitate Bishop Williamson – without seeking the advice of his most senior advisers, according to Vatican insiders – provoked uproar around the world and forced the Vatican into damage control mode.

"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, referring to the Pontiff's desire to reconcile the ultra-conservative Society of Saint Pius X, of which Williamson is a member, with the rest of the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Kasper noted that although Bishop Williamson and three other bishops have had their excommunications lifted, "they are still suspended" from the mainstream Church.

The Vatican has argued that rehabilitating Bishop Williamson, who runs a church in Argentina, does not imply that it accepts or condones his views on the Holocaust.

But the affair has poisoned relations with progressive Catholics and Jewish groups around the world, leaving many with the impression that the Vatican did not give enough thought to bringing Williamson in from the cold. >>> By Nick Squires in Rome | Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Bishop Richard Williamson interviewed by Swedish television >>>

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Priest in Italy Defends Holocaust-denier
ASSOCIATED PRESS: ROME — A priest in an ultraconservative society recently rehabilitated by Pope Benedict XVI has defended a bishop in his group and joined him in expressing doubts about the Holocaust.

While making more cautious remarks than Bishop Richard Williamson, the Rev. Floriano Abrahamowicz echoed, in an interview published Thursday by an Italian daily, the prelate's doubts that Jews were gassed during World War II.

"I know gas chambers existed at least to disinfect, I can't say if anybody was killed in them or not," Abrahamowicz told La Tribuna di Treviso, a newspaper in northern Italy.

Contacted by phone in Treviso, Abrahamowicz said the report of his interview was accurate, but declined to elaborate.

Benedict lifted Williamson's excommunication and those of three other members of the Society of St. Pius X last week as part of his efforts to bring the group, which opposes many of the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council, back into the church.

Williamson's superiors at the society have distanced themselves from his comments.

Asked for comment about Abrahamowicz' remarks, a Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, noted that Benedict had warned Wednesday against any denial of the full horror of the Nazi genocide and had expressed his unquestioned solidarity with Jews.

The spokesman also reiterated the Holy See's position that rehabilitating Williamson by no means implies that the Vatican shares his views. >>> By Ariel David | Thursday, January 29, 2009

ZEIT ONLINE: Holocaust-Leugnung: Antisemitismus unterm Kreuz

Die Wiederaufnahme des Holocaust-Leugners Bischof Williamson in die katholische Kirche steht in unseliger biblischer Tradition, schreibt die Theologin Uta Ranke-Heinemann

Seit Benedikt XVI. den Holocaustleugner und britischen Bischof Williamson ex-exkommunizierte und wie einen Heimkehrer herzlich umarmte, reißt die Debatte über diesen Schritt des Papstes nicht ab. Die Juden fühlen sich zutiefst verletzt, viele Deutschen schämen sich, dass es ein deutscher Papst war, der diesen schweren Fehltritt beging.

Alle Verteidigungen des Papstes, der für sich in Anspruch nimmt, unfehlbar in Glaubens- und Moralfragen zu sein, überzeugen nicht: Moralisch gesehen bedeutete seine Entscheidung eine unerträgliche Bagatellisierung unendlichen menschlichen Leides, das den Juden unter Hitler angetan wurde.

Die Wurzeln des Antisemitismus reichen im Christentum aber viel weiter zurück. Sie sind schon im Neuen Testament angelegt, und zwar in der Darstellung der Passion Christi. >>> © Zeit Online | Freitag, 30. Januar 2009

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