Pope: Holocaust denial unacceptable
Associated Press/Jerusalem Post
Pope
Benedict XVI said Thursday any minimization of the Holocaust was
unacceptable, especially for a priest, as he met with Jewish leaders in
hopes of ending the rancor over a bishop who denied 6 million Jews were
killed by the Nazis.
The German-born Benedict also confirmed that he
planned to visit Israel in May, in what would be the second official
visit by a pope.
The Vatican scheduled the pope's audience with about
60 American Jewish leaders Thursday after Benedict lifted the
excommunication of a traditionalist bishop who denied the Holocaust,
sparking outrage among Jews and Catholics alike.
Issuing his
strongest condemnation of Holocaust denial yet, Benedict affirmed the
Catholic Church was "profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all
anti-Semitism."
"The hatred and contempt for men, women and
children that was manifested in the Shoah was a crime against God and
against humanity," Benedict said, using the Hebrew term for the
Holocaust. "This should be clear to everyone, especially to those
standing in the tradition of the Holy Scriptures."
"It is beyond
question that any denial or minimization of this terrible crime is
intolerable and altogether unacceptable," he said during the meeting in
the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.
Jewish leaders applauded his
comments, saying the crisis with the church that had been sparked by
Bishop Richard Williamson's comments was over.
In an interview
with Swedish state TV broadcast on January 21, Williamson denied that
any Jews were gassed during World War II. He said only about 200,000 to
300,000 Jews were killed, but none of them gassed.
The Vatican
said Benedict did not know of Williamson's views when he agreed to lift
the excommunication, and stressed that he did not in any way share
Williamson's views. But confronted with mounting Jewish outrage, the
Vatican demanded Williamson recant before he would be fully admitted as
a bishop into the church.
Williamson has apologized for causing
distress to the pope, but has not recanted. He said he would correct
himself if he is satisfied by the evidence, but insisted in an
interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel that examining it "will
take time."
Benedict lifted the excommunication of Williamson and
three other bishops consecrated by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
without papal consent in 1988. Lefebvre founded the traditionalist
Society of St. Pius X in 1969, opposed to the liberalizing reforms of
the Second Vatican Council, particularly its outreach to Jews.
Benedict's
trip in May, which had been planned before the Williamson affair
surfaced, would be the second official visit by a pope to Israel.
Pope John Paul II made the first official visit in 2000.
The
only other visit by a pope, in 1964, reflected the strained nature of
the relationship in those years. Pope Paul VI spent only part of one
day in Israel, and never ventured into Jewish west Jerusalem. He never
uttered the word "Israel" in public.
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