Pope’s march to the Right includes Holocaust-denying bishop
“Bacon sandwiches for everyone!”
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The Vatican said the pope issued a decree lifting the excommunication of four traditionalist bishops who were thrown out of the Roman Catholic Church in 1988 for being ordained without Vatican permission.
The four bishops lead the ultra-conservative Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which has about 600,000 members and rejected modernizations of Roman Catholic worship and doctrine…
One of the four bishops, the British-born Richard Williamson, has made a number of statements denying the full extent of the Nazi Holocaust of European Jews, as accepted by mainstream historians.
In comments to Swedish television broadcast Wednesday, he said “I believe there were no gas chambers” and only up to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, instead of 6 million…
Pope Benedict has already made several gestures of reconciliation to the schismatic group, including allowing the unconditional return of the old-style Latin Mass.
That move also angered Jews because the ceremony includes a Good Friday prayer for their conversion.
The rationales for Williamson’s bigotry and foolishness are the same as for any similar sophistry denying historic fact and record. The crime now extends to a Pope who would rather have his followers paying dues – than leading anyone to an understanding of horrific crime.
