Vatican Radio on Tuesday defended Pope Benedict XVI's ''unequivocal'' record on the Shoah amid a row over a bishop who was rehabilitated despite being a Holocaust denier.As the controversy rumbled on, the head of the Yad Vashem memorial to victims of the Holocaust in Jerusalem told ANSA that the Vatican should have distinguished ''clearly'' between Bishop Richard Williamson and the other three bishops whose excommunication was lifted Saturday.
The Vatican should have said that Williamson ''is not worthy to serve as a guide or hold high holy office,'' Avner Shalev said.
However, Shalev said he did not think the row would affect Benedict's planned visit to Yad Vashem as part of his trip to the Holy Land in the spring.
Vatican Radio, in a long feature marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, recalled Benedict's visit to Auschwitz in 2006 when the German pope asked how God could have permitted ''this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil''.
It also cited the pope's comments last November on 'Kristallnacht', the anti-Jewish pogrom in Germany and Austria in 1938 that heralded the Nazi's programme to exterminate the Jews.
Speaking on the 70th anniversary of 'the Night of Broken Glass' - a reference to the windows of thousands of Jewish businesses and synagogues that were smashed by the Nazis - the pope said: ''I still feel pain over what happened in that tragic circumstance, whose memory should serve to ensure that similar horrors are never repeated and so that we strive - on every level - against any form of anti-Semitism and discrimination''.
The Vatican broadcaster also recalled visits to Auschwitz and Cologne Synagogue in 2005.
On all these occasions, it said, the pope had used ''unequivocal words'' which condemned the ''unheard-of crime'' produced by ''insane racist ideology''.
The Vatican has been hit by a barrage of criticism since Benedict rehabilitated Williamson, who recently reiterated his belief that there were no gas chambers and only 300,000 Jews died in the Holocaust, not six million.
On Monday the head of the Italian bishops, Msgr Angelo Bagnasco, condemned Williamson's statements as ''unfounded and unmotivated'' while the Vatican daily, l'Osservatore Romano, said Williamson's comments were ''grave, upsetting (and) unacceptable,'' repeating the Church's teachings against anti-Semitism.
On Tuesday the head of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, Renzo Gattegna, welcomed the condemnation but said that more was needed.
''Now we hope the analysis of the situation can proceed so as to arrive at a more in-depth clarification which could be useful to resume relations in the best climate possible,'' he said. Rome Chief Rabbi Riccardo Pacifici said that moves to clear up the Williamson case were ''only at the beginning'' and added: ''the problem is not Williamson alone: he is just the tip of an iceberg''.
The chief rabbi of Trieste, Itzak Margalit, said ''this pope, sadly, has taken dialogue between Jews and Christians back 100 years''.
On Tuesday Catholic bishops in Switzerland, where Williamson's traditionalist movement is based, apologised to Swiss Jews for ''the irritations caused in the last few days''.
''Anyone who knows Benedict XVI and his positive attitude to Judaism knows he cannot tolerate the indefensible deviations of Msgr Williamson,'' a statement from the Swiss Episcopal Conference said.
The four bishops rehabilitated on Saturday had been excommunicated in 1988 along with the late dissident French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who had ordained them without permission from the Vatican.
Their rehabilitation is a step towards reuniting the followers of the ultra-traditionalist French archbishop, who belong to the Society of Saint Pius X which he set up in Switzerland in 1970, with the Church of Rome.
The decision to revoke Williamson's excommunication sparked anger over the weekend, with Rabbi David Rosen from the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations claiming it had ''contaminated the entire Church'' and undone years of progress in Jewish-Catholic relations.
Vatican Spokesman Federico Lombardi was quick to clarify that the rehabilitation had ''absolutely nothing to do'' with Williamson's comments, which the Holy See ''does not share in any way''.
The Yad Vashem memorial on Sunday recognised that the rehabilitation was ''an internal matter'' but said it was ''scandalous that someone of such stature in the Church should deny the Holocaust''.
''Even if the revocation of excommunication is independent of Williamson's comments, what type of message does that give about the attitude of the Church towards the Holocaust?'', it asked.
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(Source: ANSA)