The intervention of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor will intensify the worldwide uproar triggered by the Pope's decision to lift the ban on Bishop Richard Williamson who has questioned the killing of six millions Jews by the Nazis. The Cardinal, in a letter to Dr Jonathan Sacks the Chief Rabbi, a copy of which has been released to The Daily Telegraph, expressed his deep regret at the effect of the Vatican decree which has already been criticised by Angela Merkel the German Chancellor.
Dr Sacks, in his reply to the Cardinal, has warned that the episode has done "great damage" to relationships between the Jewish and Catholic faith.
The Winchester and Cambridge educated Bishop Williamson, who runs a church in Argentina, has said that the Nazis did not use gas chambers to kill and that a maximum 300,000 Jews lost their lives.
Last week he apologised for the "distress and problems" he had caused the Pope by his "imprudent" remarks but pointedly declined to withdraw them.
The Cardinal, in his letter, said: "I am writing to express my dismay at the effect of the Vatican decree... Specifically I naturally deplore the comments made by the Englishman, Rev Williamson, in his denial of the full horror of the Holocaust. His statement and views have absolutely no place in the Catholic Church and its teaching."
The bishop was exiled from the Roman Catholic church 20-years-ago because he was consecrated by the rebel conservative French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
The Cardinal said that the Pope had made clear his own repulsion at the Holocaust when he said: last year.
"May the Shoah be for all a warning against forgetfulness, against denial or reductionism, because violence against a single human being is violence against all."
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, who is due to stand down as head of the roman catholic church in England and Wales next month, was heartened that Bishop Williams was still suspended from the mainstream church.
"Perhaps I should add that the lifting of excommunication is only a first step towards reconciliation of the bishops concerned. None of them is yet able to exercise any office either as priest or bishop in communion with the Catholic Church.
"I put this in writing to assure you of our continued understanding and friendship. In these difficult times we are called to bear witness to peace and good will. I like to think this is especially true of relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish Community here in Britain."
The Chief Rabbi, in his reply, said: "Your dismay and your understanding of the seriousness of Holocaust denial, matches the feeling of many Jews around the world who believe that great damage has been done to Catholic-Jewish relations."
Last November the Cardinal, Chief Rabbi and leaders of other faiths in Britain stood together in prayer at Auschwitz-Birkenau, concentration camp "[as] witnesses to the Holocaust that some still deny, we committed ourselves to work together to take a stand against hatred in the name of the God of love".
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(Source: TTUK)