Pope authorises lifting of excommunication on Holocaust-denying Bishop
January 24, 2009 - 4:45pm
Pope lifts SSPX excommunications
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The Pope has authorised the lifting of the excommunications on the Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson of the Society of St Pius X and his three brother bishops, all ordained by the society's founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
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It seems that they still cannot hold office, but can take heart from the fact that they will no longer burn in hell, a friend tells me.
Words fail me. 
Accompanying story at same link:
Church of England clergy host Holocaust denial Bishop
excerpt:
The Chief Rabbi of Rome Riccardo di Segni has today told La Stampa that ending the schism with Society of St Pius X, as the Pope is expected to do in the next few days, will cause a 'deep wound' in Jewish Catholic relations. Other Jewish leaders have today pleaded with the Pope not to do it. One of the society's bishops believes there were no gas chambers and that other aspects of the Holocaust are a myth. Meanwhile, another chilling detail to emerged today is that, is that in spite of evidence of Bishop Richard Williamson's views being around for years, the Society of St Pius X has in Sweden been meeting, celebrating Mass and confirming new members, not in Catholic churches, but in churches of the Church of England's diocese in Europe.
Hmmmm.. the comments below the C of E article are interesting:
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"Of course there just had to be an Anglican connection, especially in the 'traditionalist' Diocese in Europe". What a particularly stupid and offensive statement. Having been an Anglican in Europe for 17 years, I can confirm that I have never encountered any European Anglicans, including their priests and bishops, who endorse Bishop Williamson's statements regarding the Holocaust.
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"we Anglicans have been happily sharing our churches with them for years"
Well, a couple of churches in Sweden, clearly unaware of the nature of the organisation, have been doing so. They may well be sharing their churches in Sweden with all kinds of groups previously unknown to the Times. That's how it is in Europe: there are very few Church of England churches there.
Does this justify such a generalised complaint about the diocese in question or the Church of England as a whole?
Her reporting of the facts seems okay, but I wonder if Gledhill's editorializng needs to be taken with a grain of salt? Comments?
I'll be very impressed when the Archbishop of Canterbury condemns Herr Ratzinger for flaunting his Nazi origins. Any chance of that, or will it just cause another split in the C of E?
Beats me.
Holocaust denial 'intolerable': Pope
Right. But His Holiness has not reversed his order rescinding the excommunication of Williamson. So it's "intolerable", mostly.
"The hatred and contempt for men, women and children that was manifested in the Shoah [Holocaust] was a crime against humanity," the Pope told 60 Jewish-American leaders in the Vatican.[...]
The Pope also told the leaders he is preparing to visit Israel.
Not sure whether to laugh or weep at that passage.
I have questions about this, that are unclear from the article:
1. Has the Pope simply rescinded the former Bishop's excommunication as an individual? Does this mean that the former Bishop is now a Catholic Bishop again, or does it simply mean that he is now a member of the Catholic church?
2. This sect that he leads - is Holocaust denial one of the beliefs of the sect, or is it a personal belief held by the Bishop himself?
Far be it from me to give Pope Nazinger any quarter at all, but the reason I ask these things is because if the former Bishop is simply being allowed to be a member of the church, but is no longer recognized as an ordained priest, I don't really have a problem with that - unless, of course, they're going to have an inquisition and purge ALL the anti-semites and racists from their membership rolls.
And the reason I ask the second question is because if this sect does not promote Holocaust denial or assert it as one of their beliefs, then I can see why the Pope would consider reconciliation with them. The only problem with that, of course, is that if this anti-semitic Bishop is still leading this sect, then obviously the Pope can't allow him to be Bishop if it's to be considered part of the Roman Catholic church.
So, looks like the Pope is in a pickle. Which makes me gleeful, I must admit. Nothing makes my morning like watching a misogynist squirm!
to answer the second question first, Michelle, no holocaust denial is not a tenet of this breakaway sect. this particular priest is just an idiot. it was basically an extremely traditional sect that was pissed about Vatican 2 and created their own little splinter group where tehy conduct mass in latin and all that.
look, i'm a jew. my grandparents were holocaust survivors. this guy sickens me. but his repugnant views were not the issue that got him excommunicated. it was for being in a 'schismatic" group. so his repugnant views, tehrefore, are not the issue in him being allowed back in. to use an analogy: karla homolka earned a degree from queen's university while in prison for rape and murder. she's obviously a disgusting human being. but queen's, in granting her degree, was not endorsing her actions, merely certifying that she met the academic requirements to obtain a specific degree. her terrible behaviour wasn't relevant. and this priest's appalling views aren't the issue in whether he's allowed to rejoin the catholic church.
1. Has the Pope simply rescinded the former Bishop's excommunication as an individual? Does this mean that the former Bishop is now a Catholic Bishop again, or does it simply mean that he is now a member of the Catholic church?
The Pope claims he was unaware of the Bishop's views when he rescinded the excommunication. Once he became "aware", the Vatican said he must retract his views before being allowed to resume his episcopal functions. He has "apologized", but not retracted. That's I think where matters stand now.
Also, he was never excommunicated for his Holocaust denial in the first place. In 1988, the Church excommunicated him and three other priests who were consecrated by Marcel Lefebvre without papal permission.
ETA: Crossposted with SSC, who said basically the same thing. Let me be clear that I don't care whether this Church excommunicates or forgives or does anything to anyone. I just find it telling that they have trouble sanctioning neo-Nazi sentiments. If they actually started excommunicating racists, anti-semites, homophobes, misogynists - well, there'd be no one left to do the excommunicating, now would there?
Anti-semitism isn't a Lefebvrist core belief, but it's common enough in this group that (in effect) left the church because it was too left-wing. This is the group that Mel Gibson was linked to when he released that bit of snuff porn a few years back.
A little context. OK, I'm using Wikipedia, but here goes.
Archbishop Lefebvre was a duly appointed bishop of the Catholic Church, and the Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers in the 60s. In 1970, he founded, with the permission of the Bishop of Fribourg, the International Priestly Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). The Society was officially dissolved by a new Bishop of Fribourg in 1975. To make a long story short, Lefebvre kept ordaining priests, even though he was ordered not to by the Pope. He was suspended from all his episcopal and priestly duties, was told to stop adminstering the Sacraments, was told to stop ordaining priests, etc. These ordinations are, by Canon Law, valid but illicit. "There is no doubt about the validity of the ordination of the priests of the Society of St. Pius X. They are, however, suspended a divinis, that is prohibited by the Church from exercising their orders because of their illicit ordination." (http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CEDSSPX.HTM) Thus, the Catholic Church recognises these priests as illicitly ordained, but genuine priests nonetheless, though they are prohibited from exercising their priestly orders. Williamson was one of these illicitly but validly ordained priests.
At this point, the SSPX was almost in schism with the Roman Catholic Church, but not quite. Their activity was considered illicit and irregular: they were, in particular, in violation of various prohibitions. Then, in 1988, Lefebvre went beyond the ordination of priests, and consecrated four bishops, including Williamson. This earned all five of them instant excommunication. These consecrations were, again, illicit but valid. Thus, to answer Michelle's question, Williamson is considered a genuine bishop from the moment of his consecration although (1) his consecration was illicit; (2) he was excommunicated from the moment of his consecration until Jan 21, 2009; and (3) the Vatican forbade and continues to forbid him from engaging in any priestly or episcopal functions (though he seems to have ignored this continued prohibition). Despite the lifting of the excommunications, the situation of SSPX is still highly irregular: their priests and bishops continue their priestly and episcopal functions, despite explicit Vatican prohibitions to the contrary. Despite the lifting of his excommunication, and despite his valid status as a genuine bishop, Williamson is empahtically not in good standing with the Church.
When Benedict lifted the excommunications, he almost certainly didn't know about the Holocaust denials. It was intended as a first step towards regularizing Rome's relations with SSPX. The pope's ignorance of Williamson's Holocaust denials is probably a case of culpable ignorance. There is an interesting article in the Globe and Mail about this: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090211.wpope11/BNStory/International/home. It is worth noting that even the ultraconservative SSPX has felt at least embarassed: of their own accord, they removed him from his position of their (irregular, by Rome's standards) seminary at La Reja, Argentina.
(http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hHTQIvSDxNgBho-JYJB8gbYupKhgD9683TE00)
http://www.adl.org/NR/exeres/0B9E6310-7A85-4B7B-A295-FF8442B219EE,DB7611A2-02CD-43AF-8147-649E26813571,frameless.htm
The SSPX was organized as a reaction to the 1960's Vatican II "liberalization" of the RC church. One of those liberalizations that the SSPX objected to was the official end of the charge of "deicide" against Jews in general. Anti-semitism has always been one of the key features of the SSPX. I strongly doubt that the Vatican was unaware of this when they welcomed Williamson back into the fold. More likely they were surprised by the reaction and have engaged in a lame and dishonest attempt at damage control.
Well, that's all pretty damning stuff, for sure.
I have to say I find this unlikely. As cardinal under Pope JPII, Ratzinger had this particularly sensitive file, and must have been aware of Williamson's views. At the time, Ratzingers task was to see if some sort of accomodation was possible to settle this ugly and public split. I don't know how much latitude Ratzinger may have been given in terms of give and take, (that info may well be available somewhere) but I would note, that JPII was one of the few people in the hierarchy who wasn't intimidated by the rather imposing Archbishop Lefebvre.
As we learned with Watergate, leaders and their entourage have always taken exquisitely detailed precautions to be able to claim that the top man "did not know" what they do, if they are ever overtaken by principled opposition. A current example.
Williamson: "I will not travel to Auschwitz"
excerpt:
Q: You could travel to Auschwitz yourself.
A: No, I will not travel to Auschwitz. I've ordered the book by Jean-Claude Pressac. It's called "Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers." A printout is now being sent to me, and I will read it and study it.
Wow, that's really guarding against the long shots!
Two questions: Did Benedict know about the general anti-Semtism (accusations of deicide, etc.) chez SSPX? Did Benedict know about Williamson's Holocaust denial in particular? I've now been persuaded that he probably did know about the former. It's less clear about the latter, but probably impossible for any of us on this board to know for sure. Certainly, his apparent or disingenuously professed ignorance of the latter is some strong evidence of a pretty shocking lack of due diligence, if nothing else.
This stands out, in the link I provided a couple of posts up:
How can an educated Catholic deny the Holocaust?
Accompanying story at same link:
Church of England clergy host Holocaust denial Bishop
This ought to be worth a thread to excoriate
the English and to call for airstrikes on their nuclear arsenal.
Argentina expels Pope Ratzinger's bosom bishop buddy Richard Williamson
Once a Nazi, always a Nazi. I will refuse to set foot inside a Catholic church until Ratzinger is gone.
Me too, Fidel.
And I dont know what I'll do when my niece is married soon. She's Catholic and so is his family on both sides.
I'll convert them to Judaism. You should see the shindig we put on.
Sounds good. I'm there.
Jewish wedding (Delacroix)
Good times!
Williamson has, apparently, "disappeared": http://cathcon.blogspot.com/2009/02/bishop-williamson-disappears.html