Thursday, January 29, 2009

Pope reacts to uproar over a Holocaust denier

International Herald Tribune
By Rachel Donadio
Published: January 29, 2009

ROME: Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday addressed for the first time the uproar over his decision to rehabilitate a Holocaust-denying bishop, expressing solidarity with Jews and strongly condemning Holocaust denial.

In his weekly audience with the public on Wednesday, Benedict said he "renewed with love" his "full and indisputable solidarity" with Jews, whom he called "our brothers of the first covenant."

He added that he had repeatedly visited Auschwitz, the location of the "brutal massacre of millions of Jews, innocent victims of blind racial and religious hatred," and said that the Holocaust "should be a warning for everyone against forgetting, denying or diminishing its significance."

But tensions remained, a day after Israel's highest religious body sent a letter to the Vatican asking to postpone an annual bilateral meeting and voicing "sorrow and pain" at the pope's decision to welcome the bishop back into the fold.

On Saturday, the pope revoked the excommunication of four schismatic bishops from a traditionalist sect, including Bishop Richard Williamson, who in an interview broadcast in Sweden last week and widely available online said he believed that no more than 300,000 Jews perished during World War II, none of them in gas chambers.

Oded Wiener, the director general of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, praised the pope's comments on Wednesday as "a giant step forward" and "an extremely important statement, not only for the Jewish people, but also for all the world."

But on Tuesday, the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, Wiener sent a letter to the Vatican saying that unless the bishop issued a public apology and recanted his "deplorable statements," it would be "very difficult for the Chief Rabbinate of Israel to continue its dialogue with the Vatican as before."

The letter said it would be wiser to postpone an annual meeting between the rabbinate and a small group of Vatican officials, scheduled to be held in Rome in early March.

The rabbinate's letter was addressed to Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the president of the Commission for Religious Relations With Jews, who said in an earlier interview that he had not been consulted about the pope's decision to revoke the excommunications of the four bishops.

On Wednesday, the secretary of the commission, the Rev. Norbert Hofmann, said that "no definite decision" had been made about the scheduled meeting. He said Cardinal Kasper had conveyed the message to the highest authorities at the Vatican.

Wiener said the rabbinate was awaiting a response from Cardinal Kasper before determining how to proceed with the scheduled meeting.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said he hoped that "the difficulties expressed" by the rabbinate could lead to "further and deeper reflection."

He added that he believed that the pope's message should be "more than sufficient" in answering concerns about the pope's and the Vatican's position on the Holocaust.

In his remarks, the pope said that the Holocaust should teach "new generations" that "only the difficult path of listening and dialogue, love and pardon" can lead to "fraternity and peace in truth."

The Israeli ambassador to the Vatican, Mordechay Lewy, said he welcomed the pope's remarks about the Holocaust and called them "instrumental in shaping the parameters of the existing and future relations between Jews and Catholics."

He said the current controversy did not affect relations between Israel and the Vatican, nor did he think they would affect discussions under way for the pope to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories this spring.
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