German Pope Rehabilitates Holocaust Denier

Jesus, this headline practically wrote itself, as Reuters reports that Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications of four far-right bishops belonging to the Society of Saint Pius X. Now, I don't care about the internal policies of the Roman Catholic Church, and what their ceremonies should be, or who should name bishops, or whatever the controversies over how to administrate this leftover from medieval times are.

But one of the four restored bishops is Richard Williamson, who has become notorious for making statements denying the extent of the Holocaust. From the article:

In comments to Swedish television broadcast on Wednesday and widely available on the Internet, Williamson said "I believe there were no gas chambers" and only up to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, instead of 6 million.

"I believe that the historical evidence is hugely against 6 million having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler," he said.

Besides the obscenity that such a statement is, the sentiments feed anti-Semitic attitudes among many impressionable and/or bigoted people. They are also fertile recruiting slogans for the Zionists who run Israel, because they can point to such poisonous statements, now seemingly okay within Vatican circles, as a rationale for the nationalism that fuels Israel's attacks on the Palestinians and their leadership, such as the recent assault on Gaza that killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians.

Meanwhile, the Vatican thumbed its nose at Jewish leaders who protested the Pope's actions. Calling Williamson's holocaust denial merely "open to criticism", a Vatican spokesman said the comments were"'totally extraneous' to the lifting of the excommunications."

But Jewish leaders did not accept the explanation. They questioned why the Vatican had not issued a clear statement condemning Williamson and one said privately the decree represented "a nail in the coffin of 50 years of dialogue."

The Pope's actions should clearly be condemned.