The New York Times reported today that the Vatican has called for an immediate recanting of the remarks that Bishop Richard Williamson made in an interview last month. (See January 25, 2009 post)
The article states that Bishop Williamson “must absolutely, unequivocally and publicly distance himself from his positions on the Shoah”. The Vatican representative went on to say that the Bishop’s positions were “unknown to the Holy Father at the time he revoked the excommunication.”
Recant? You mean do over? This man made these statements last month!!! Does His Holiness really believe that recanting will mean anything??? Oh, yeah, like “C’mon you zilly Juuuden and Mooslims you know he vas only kidding.” (an attempt to get you to read in a heavy German accent, with some Bela Lugosi intonations).
He is kidding, right? He went ahead and revoked an excommunication based upon the fact that he had rehabilitated the Bishop without verifying that the Bishop was in fact rehabilitated. Now he wants us to believe that he is stepping up; that he is doing the right thing. Are we buying this?
The only thing the Pope can do at this point is to say:
A special thanks to Nat for sending the on-line article to me. I missed it in today’s paper. Ok, it wasn’t short.
allan
jai guru deva
Update:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/world/europe/05pope.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp
Vatican Move on Bishop Exposes Fissures of Church
By RACHEL DONADIO
Published: February 4, 2009
ROME — Responding to an extraordinary burst of global outrage, especially in Pope Benedict XVI’s native Germany, the Vatican for the first time on Wednesday called on a recently rehabilitated bishop to take back his statements denying the Holocaust.
Pope Benedict has stumbled before in his nearly four-year papacy, most notably when he offended Muslims in 2006 by citing a medieval scholar who said Islam brought things “evil and inhuman.” But the internal controversy created by Bishop Williamson’s rehabilitation is unlike anything the Vatican has faced in recent decades.
Wednesday’s unsigned statement — a rare case of the Vatican’s diplomatic arm furthering earlier remarks by the pope himself — not only showed an age-old institution grappling with the 24-hour news cycle. It also seemed to be a clear indication that the Vatican was facing nothing less than an internal and external political crisis.
Wow, a comment! Well at least it appears as one, even if it is just a link to another article. And BTW, I found out this morning that the reason I missed that article in yesterday's paper was because it wasn't in yesterday's paper. It was on line yesterday, but is front page today in the DTV.
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