Pope Benedict on Thursday called the Nazis' World War II extermination of six million Jews "a crime against God and against humanity."He made the remarks in an address to American Jewish leaders who were visiting the Vatican for the first face-to-face talks since a row erupted over Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Williamson.
"The hatred and contempt for men, women and children that was manifested in the Shoah (Holocaust) was a crime against God and against humanity," Benedict said.
"It is beyond question that any denial or minimisation of this terrible crime is intolerable and altogether unacceptable," he said. "This terrible chapter in our history must never be forgotten."
Catholic-Jewish relations have soured since the Pope last month lifted the excommunication of ultratraditionalist Williamson.
Benedict XVI has come under pressure to take a strong stand against anti-Semitism since comments by Williamson were publicised. The British bishop disrupted that six million Jews had been murdered by the Nazis and claimed that none had died in gas chambers.
"How can we begin to grasp the enormity of what took place in those infamous prisons? The entire human race feels deep shame at the savage brutality shown to your people at that time," the pontiff said.
He recalled the profoundly moving experience of his visit to the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in May 2006.
"The Church is profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-semitism and to continue to build good and lasting relations between our two communities," he stated.
The Vatican last week ordered Williamson to renounce his views denying the Holocaust, saying the Pope had been unaware of Williamson's views, a claim many find hard to believe.
Williamson has refused to renounce his views, merely saying he will re-examine the evidence on the Holocaust.
The ultratraditionalist Society of St Pius X, of which Williamson is a member, announced on Monday it was removing the renegade bishop from his post as head of a Roman Catholic seminary in Argentina.
The society also rejected Williamson's views saying they "in no way" reflected the organisation's position.
Apart from Williamson, the Vatican reinstated three other bishops from the Society of St Pius X, which rejects the reforms of the Second Vatican Council introduced during the 1960s.
The four bishops were excommunicated by Pope John Paul II in 1988 after SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated them in unsanctioned ceremonies.
Lefebvre, a Frenchman, founded the Society of St Pius X in 1970 in opposition to Vatican II reforms.
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(Source: AKI)