The Bishop Richard Williamson II

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: “Oops! I made a mistake. I am reinstating Bishop Williamson’s excommunication.” (No accent or intonations required here.) This of course, would make the Pope look like a fool, but not as big a fool and bigot as he appears now.

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

Bishop John Williamson

In today's edition of the New York Times, there appeared a front page article headlined "Pope embraces 4 rebel Bishops". Okay, not very interesting, figuring the Pope had embraced a few Bishops who were in favor of gay marriage. I then read the secondary headline, "One denies Holocaust and has 9/11 doubts". I read the article, and was outraged, but I was not surprised. This Pope, as you may recall, is of German Heritage.

The four Bishops, who by the way, were elevated to that status in a manner not sanctioned by the Church, had been excommunicated in the 1988 for their part in supporting the Society of St. Pius X. This Society was formed in 1970 in protest to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

In short, the Pope's explanation for removing the excommunications of the four Bishops stemmed from the fact that he had rehabilitated them. I took this to mean that he had somehow brainwashed them into recanting their affrontations to the Church, thereby accepting the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, one of which was that God loves everyone, even those "who have not yet received the Gospel" (I believe this to be an exact translation taken from the papers issued by the SVC), and is generally regarded as the Church's efforts to reach out to Jews and Muslims.

Not wanting to believe this outrageous story, I googled Bishop Williamson. The first link that came up regarding the Bishop took me to the Huffington Post's website. There, I read another article which basically confirmed what I had read in the Times. There was also a video of a recent interview with Bishop Williamson which was held in Sweden.

Now does it really seem that Pope Benedict XVI has rehabilitated this man? I don't think so. Should he have rescinded his excommunication? I don't think so. Any criticism Pope Benedict receives in reference to agreeing with the Bishop's views are deserved. Any criticism His Holiness receives regarding his intentions is also deserved. He is openly moving towards the right, which is moving the Church backwards.

allan

jai guru deva