He's back.Holocaust-denying British Bishop Richard Williamson is giving interviews again, adding Israel-bashing to his opinion portfolio.
He gave a 15 minute interview with a minor French politician known for anti-Zionist views, Pierre Panet, that was, posted in various French media, just in time to compete for headlines with Pope Benedict XVI's synagogue visit this week.
Williamson is quoted saying there were "absolutely irreconcilable" differences between traditionalists and discussions at the Vatican "will end up as a dialog of the deaf."
Williamson is one of four bishops who were excommunicated decades ago for their refusal to accept the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Benedict made critical headlines last winter when he tried to envelop them back into the church -- if they let go of their discordant views and were rehabilitated.
Williamson continued to give Holocaust denial interviews so alarming even his own leader in the ultra-right Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) gagged him, and brought him back from his seminary post in Argentina to England, reports Reuters religion editor
In October, a German court fined Williamson 12,000 Euros after he was found guilty of Holocaust denial -- a hate crime under German law. Williamson had told Swedish television that there were no gas chambers, and only a few hundred thousand Jews, not six million, were killed by the Nazis.Now that talks between SSPX officials and the Vatican are underway, according to Williamson, they're going nowhere. Williamson continued:
The two positions are absolutely irreconcilable. 2+2=4 and 2+2=5 are irreconcilable. Either those who say 2+2=4 renounce the truth and agree that 2+2=5 -- that is, the SSPX abandons the truth, which God forbids us to do -- or those who say 2+2=5 convert and return to the truth. Or the two meet halfway and say that 2+2=4-1/2. That's wrong. Either the SSPX becomes a traitor or Rome converts or it's a dialog of the deaf."
Anna Arco's Diary blog carries an unofficial translation and the video in French as well. In this transcript Williamson says he spends his days "eating and sleeping" and writing in a blog that requires a private password to access. He also got his digs in at Israel, saying Christians have been "chased out" of the Holy Land and that, until the establishment of the Jewish State,
... in the many of the countries of the Middle East, Christians and Muslims have lived together in peace for centuries because of the force of things. Each recognized that he would not convert the other, therefore we lived together.
(I would gather his peaceful time line is dated after the crusades.)
Panet: The state of Israel: Does it have religious or political legitimacy?
Williamson: The question is obviously delicate. Let us say that many people believe it is legitimate. This does not necessarily mean that it is.
Williamson goes on to say Jews who don't accept Jesus are no longer the "chosen people." He also has more to say about faith and reason and why he thinks philosopher Immanuel Kant is "a criminal."
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