Comments in the Jerusalem Post on Bishop Williamson

The article in the Jerusalem Post, which presented the news of the lifting of the excommunication of the four men ordained bishops in 1988 by schismatic Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, appeared in Sunday's edition (25.1.2009). Among the four men is one who has claimed that only a few hundred thousand Jews died in the Holocaust and that there were no gas chambers in the concentration camps. (It should be pointed out that this same man has made other outrageous claims in the past too, for example that the Twin Towers were not destroyed by the planes that hit them on September 11, 2001).

Father Neuhaus was quoted in the article as follows:

"Father David Neuhaus (...) said on Saturday evening that the lifting of the excommunications had nothing to do with the "odious views" held by some of the bishops. "Rather the Pope has a burning desire to put an end to the schism in the Church. Discussion is going inside the Church regarding the Pope's attempt to bring back into the fold ultra-ultra conservatives who never accepted the reforms of Vatican II and were illicitly consecrated. There are those in the Church who feel that the Pope is humiliating himself for men unrepentant of their views."

"Neuhaus, who is also secretary-general of the Hebrew Speaking Catholic Vicariate in the Holy Land, said the Church's position on the Holocaust was a very sensitive issue for the local Catholic community. "It touches on the very heart of who we are here in the Holy Land as promoters of historical reconciliation of Jewish and Catholic relations so that Jews and Catholics understand each other more," he said.

"I would like to be optimistic and say that the move to bring these ultra-conservatives under the influence of the Pope will force them to tow the line with regard to the Church's contempt for Holocaust denial."

(...)

"Williamson's views contradict the teaching of the Catholic Church. The Pope has been very clear on this and continues John Paul II's tradition of inculcating total contempt for Holocaust denial and of asking whether Church clergy did enough during the Holocaust."

Read Matt Wagners full article in the Jerusalem Post