A bishop recently rehabilitated by Pope Benedict XVI said he want to "examine the evidence" of the Holocaust before possibly recanting his statement that no Jews died in Nazi gas chambers, a German newsmagazine reported.Even as Vatican officials were working to control the damage caused by Pope Benedict XVI's decision to rehabilitate a Richard Williamson, a bishop who denied the Holocaust in an interview, with papal meetings and inter-faith dialogue, Williamson told Germany's Der Spiegel news weekly he needed time to scrutinize data surrounding the Holocaust.
"If I find proof I would rectify (earlier statements) ... but all that will take time," Williamson was quoted as saying by magazine on Saturday, Feb. 7.
"I ask everyone to believe me that I did not deliberately say something false. I was, on the basis of my research in the 1980s, convinced of the accuracy of my comments. Now I must examine everything again and look at the evidence,"
The pope had demanded Williamson unequivocally distance himself statements he made in an interview with Swedish television in which he said only up to 300,000 Jews were murdered in Nazi concentration camps. Historians put the figure at 6 million.
Williamson has apologized to the pope "for the unnecessary distress" he has caused him but has not apologized to Jews. The Vatican has said Benedict was not aware of the statements Williamson made two days before the excommunication was lifted.
Italian priest also denies extent of Holocaust
The ultra-traditionalist Roman Catholic group Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), of which Williamson is a member, has expelled an Italian priest who said he believed gas chambers at Nazi death camps were only used to "disinfect" inmates.
SSPX's Italian branch said Father Floriano Abrahamowicz was expelled for "serious disciplinary reasons," the ANSA news agency reported citing a SSPX statement issued Friday.
Abrahamowicz made the remarks while defending Williamson.
Inter-faith dialogue to continue
Israel's chief Rabbinate is resuming dialogue with the Vatican after ties were put on ice following the pope's decision to lift the excommunication of Williamson and three other priests of the ultra-traditionalist Society of St Pius X (SSPX), Reuters news agency reported Saturday.
The Rabbinate pulled out of a meeting with Vatican officials scheduled for the beginning of March amid an international outcry over the bishops' rehabilitation. The meeting will now take place in late February or mid-March and will most likely include a papal audience.
Benedict is also scheduled to meet with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (CPMAJO) on Thursday to make amends, Retuers reported. Both the meetings, however, were planned before Williamson's statement to Der Spiegel.
The head of the German Bishops Council, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, renewed his call for Williamson to be, once again, excommunicated from the Catholic Church, calling the British-born Williamson "irresponsible."
"I do not see any room for him in the Catholic Church," Zollitsch told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, in an article to be published on Sunday.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce
(Source: GRCN)
Where's the good bishop's evidence that Jesus rose from the dead?
ReplyDeletethis pope is a moron and the priest can also go to hell
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is that from outside the Church, and from far away in Oregon in 2009, this is all just surreal. The Vatican seems to be on another planet. Either it is even more out of touch than I have ever imagined, more incompetent than is easily believable, or more hospitable to evil than one wants to think possible.
ReplyDeleteI am an Roman Catholic, U. S. resident, I read all about the so called bishop Williamson just by entering the name into google search, are people in the Vatican incapable of having done the same ?
ReplyDeleteAs a Jew, I am beyond disgusted by Williamson's reinstatement. Furthermore, I have trouble believing that the Pope and Vatican were unaware of his stance on the Holocaust. If they were, SHAME ON THEM. How hopelessly out-of-touch and irresponsible!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe bishop prove a truly vertical position concerning his opinion Good for him .Vatican must prove is not under Jewish lobby
ReplyDeleteThis is a no-brainer.
ReplyDeleteI say, there is a ghost standing beside me. You say, no there is no ghost. I say, oh yeah -- prove it! Prove there is no ghost beside me. You cannot do it. Therefore, I win.
Do not play Williamson's game. It is up to him to prove there was no holocaust. In the above example, it is up to me to prove there is a ghost standing beside me -- NOT to you to prove there is none. Moral: don't be suckers. Don't be chumps. The guy wants you to flirt with him. Instead, dump the chump.
The evidence and Williamson's own words speak clearly for themselves. He does not deny a holocaust, he simply does not believe that the Germans could have used cyanide gas in those alleged gas chambers to kill millions of jews. His argument is based on a simple, straightforward scientific analysis. Where is the evidence refuting his analysis?
ReplyDeleteThe interesting thing is that this has come out soon after a Jewish research in Israel has published a book setting forth his evidence that the story of a historical Israeli nation in Palestine is nothing but a myth created about 100 years ago by zionists.
It is no coincidence.
Williamson has no reason to leave the catholic church and the jews have no standing to demand anything like that.
BTW, what Williamson is saying is based on solid, scientific evidence. He's saying that there's no way that the Germans could have killed that many people with cyanide gas in those structures because the German soldiers themselves would have died from exposure to the cyanide, and there was no way to contain or dissipate the gas in those structures. The toxicity of cyanide in dead tissues to people like forensic pathologists and first responders has been well documented in scientific studies.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.astm.org/JOURNALS/FORENSIC/PAGES/1610.htm
So, where is the evidence refuting this? Saliva?