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Controversial statements and reinstatements

01 Feb 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"World Day for Consecrated Life" celebrated this year on the 8th is intended "to help the entire church to esteem ever more greatly" those in religious life, Pope John Paul II said at its inception in 1997. This week, however, controversy surrounding the reinstatement of an excommunicated religious leader may overshadow the celebration. Jewish groups from around the world and Catholics from a number of quarters said they were shocked by Pope Benedict XVI's decision to overturn the excommunication of British-born Richard Williamson, one of four traditionalist Catholic bishops whose excommunications were lifted last Saturday. Williamson has made statements denying the full extent of the Holocaust of European Jews. The move is a "serious blow for Jewish-Vatican relations and a slap in the face of the late Pope John Paul II who made such remarkable efforts to eradicate and combat anti-Semitism," said Rabbi David Rosen, the international director of interreligious affairs for the New York-based American Jewish Committee. Williamson told Swedish television in an interview broadcast a week ago: "I believe there were no gas chambers" and that no more than 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, rather than 6 million. In attempting to heal the rift, Benedict expressed his "full and unquestionable solidarity" with Jews during his weekly audience on Wednesday. The German-born pope said the attempt to exterminate Jews in the Holocaust should remain a warning to all humanity. Recalling his visit to the Auschwitz death camp in 2006, Benedict condemned the "pitiless killing of millions of Jews, innocent victims of blind racial and religious hatred." Elan Steinberg, vice-president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants, said: "Clearly the damage remains. As welcome as the pope's remarks are they contain a glaring omission, the demand by the Vatican that Williamson renounce his heinous views." Elie Wiesel, the death camp survivor, author, and Nobel Peace Prize winner, said Benedict had given credence to "the most vulgar aspect of anti-Semitism" by rehabilitating Williamson. On Wednesday Israel's chief rabbinate severed ties with the Vatican in protest of the pope's reinstatement of Williamson. The Jewish state's highest religious authority sent a letter to the Holy See expressing "sorrow and pain" at the papal decision. "It will be very difficult for the chief rabbinate of Israel to continue its dialogue with the Vatican as before," the letter said. Chief rabbis of both Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews were parties to the letter. Source: Articles by Philip Pullella for Reuters, Ian Deitch for the Associated Press, and Ecumenical News International

society of pope pius x john paul ii benedict xvi richard williamson david rosen american jewish committee holocaust elan steinberg elie wiesel chief rabbinate world day for consecrated life

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Let the healing begin

08 Feb 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

We hear in this Sunday's psalm that "the Lord rebuilds Jerusalem." In an effort to rebuild relations with the Jewish community that were damaged last week, the Vatican on Wednesday issued a statement demanding that a prelate who denied the Holocaust recant his positions before being fully admitted as a bishop into the Roman Catholic Church. The statement also said Pope Benedict XVI had not known about Bishop Richard Williamson's views when he agreed to lift his excommunication and that of three other traditionalist bishops. The Vatican's Secretariat of State issued the statement a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in an unprecedented move, strongly urged the German-born pope to make a clearer rejection of Holocaust denials, saying there had not been adequate clarification from the Catholic Church. The Holy See on January 24 announced the rehabilitation of four bishops excommunicated in 1988 after being consecrated without papal consent [see the February 1 issue of this Preaching in Light of the News]. The bishops had been consecrated by the late traditionalist Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who in 1969 founded the Society of St. Pius X opposed to the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council, including its outreach to Jews. Just days before his excommunication was lifted, Williamson was shown on Swedish state television saying historical evidence "is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed" during World War II. Williamson has since apologized to the pope for having stirred controversy, but he did not repudiate his comments, in which he also said only 200,000 to 300,000 Jews were killed during World War II and none were gassed. Though the Vatican quickly said it did not share Williamson's views when the controversy erupted, Jewish groups voiced outrage at his rehabilitation and demanded stronger action be taken in order to restore relations. "This was the sign the Jewish world has been waiting for," said Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, after Wednesday's Vatican statement. Earlier, Cardinal Walter Kasper, in charge of ecumenical relations for the Holy See, admitted different parts of the Vatican administration had not talked to each other enough and failed to check for potential problems. Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, thanked Merkel for her "righteous comments" and said the process to heal the "deep wound that this crisis caused to the Catholic-Jewish dialogue" could now begin. Source: Articles by BBC News and Nicole Winfield for the Associated Press.

elan steinberg world jewish congress ronald lauder vatican holy see walter kasper jews society of st pius x angela merkel holocaust denial benedict xvi richard williamson holocaust american gathering of holocaust survivors and

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Let the healing begin

08 Feb 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

We hear in this Sunday's psalm that "the Lord rebuilds Jerusalem." In an effort to rebuild relations with the Jewish community that were damaged last week, the Vatican on Wednesday issued a statement demanding that a prelate who denied the Holocaust recant his positions before being fully admitted as a bishop into the Roman Catholic Church. The statement also said Pope Benedict XVI had not known about Bishop Richard Williamson's views when he agreed to lift his excommunication and that of three other traditionalist bishops. The Vatican's Secretariat of State issued the statement a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in an unprecedented move, strongly urged the German-born pope to make a clearer rejection of Holocaust denials, saying there had not been adequate clarification from the Catholic Church. The Holy See on January 24 announced the rehabilitation of four bishops excommunicated in 1988 after being consecrated without papal consent [see the February 1 issue of this Preaching in Light of the News]. The bishops had been consecrated by the late traditionalist Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who in 1969 founded the Society of St. Pius X opposed to the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council, including its outreach to Jews. Just days before his excommunication was lifted, Williamson was shown on Swedish state television saying historical evidence "is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed" during World War II. Williamson has since apologized to the pope for having stirred controversy, but he did not repudiate his comments, in which he also said only 200,000 to 300,000 Jews were killed during World War II and none were gassed. Though the Vatican quickly said it did not share Williamson's views when the controversy erupted, Jewish groups voiced outrage at his rehabilitation and demanded stronger action be taken in order to restore relations. "This was the sign the Jewish world has been waiting for," said Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, after Wednesday's Vatican statement. Earlier, Cardinal Walter Kasper, in charge of ecumenical relations for the Holy See, admitted different parts of the Vatican administration had not talked to each other enough and failed to check for potential problems. Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, thanked Merkel for her "righteous comments" and said the process to heal the "deep wound that this crisis caused to the Catholic-Jewish dialogue" could now begin. Source: Articles by BBC News and Nicole Winfield for the Associated Press.

elan steinberg world jewish congress ronald lauder vatican holy see walter kasper jews society of st pius x angela merkel holocaust denial benedict xvi richard williamson holocaust american gathering of holocaust survivors and

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Let the healing begin

08 Feb 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

We hear in this Sunday's psalm that "the Lord rebuilds Jerusalem." In an effort to rebuild relations with the Jewish community that were damaged last week, the Vatican on Wednesday issued a statement demanding that a prelate who denied the Holocaust recant his positions before being fully admitted as a bishop into the Roman Catholic Church. The statement also said Pope Benedict XVI had not known about Bishop Richard Williamson's views when he agreed to lift his excommunication and that of three other traditionalist bishops. The Vatican's Secretariat of State issued the statement a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in an unprecedented move, strongly urged the German-born pope to make a clearer rejection of Holocaust denials, saying there had not been adequate clarification from the Catholic Church. The Holy See on January 24 announced the rehabilitation of four bishops excommunicated in 1988 after being consecrated without papal consent [see the February 1 issue of this Preaching in Light of the News]. The bishops had been consecrated by the late traditionalist Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who in 1969 founded the Society of St. Pius X opposed to the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council, including its outreach to Jews. Just days before his excommunication was lifted, Williamson was shown on Swedish state television saying historical evidence "is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed" during World War II. Williamson has since apologized to the pope for having stirred controversy, but he did not repudiate his comments, in which he also said only 200,000 to 300,000 Jews were killed during World War II and none were gassed. Though the Vatican quickly said it did not share Williamson's views when the controversy erupted, Jewish groups voiced outrage at his rehabilitation and demanded stronger action be taken in order to restore relations. "This was the sign the Jewish world has been waiting for," said Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, after Wednesday's Vatican statement. Earlier, Cardinal Walter Kasper, in charge of ecumenical relations for the Holy See, admitted different parts of the Vatican administration had not talked to each other enough and failed to check for potential problems. Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, thanked Merkel for her "righteous comments" and said the process to heal the "deep wound that this crisis caused to the Catholic-Jewish dialogue" could now begin. Source: Articles by BBC News and Nicole Winfield for the Associated Press.

elan steinberg world jewish congress ronald lauder vatican holy see walter kasper jews society of st pius x angela merkel holocaust denial benedict xvi richard williamson holocaust american gathering of holocaust survivors and

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Pope promises Vatican will log on before speaking out in the future

22 Mar 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The reading from the Letter to the Ephesians this Sunday speaks of humanity's transgressions before God. Pope Benedict XVI late last week acknowledged "mistakes" in the way the Vatican lifted the excommunication of four bishops from a breakaway Catholic group, including a prelate who had denied that Jews died in Nazi gas chambers. In a letter issued on March 12 to Roman Catholic bishops around the world, the pope described as an "unforeseen mishap" the case of British-born Richard Williamson, one of the four bishops belonging to the ultra-traditionalist Society of St Pius X. "I have been told that consulting the information available on the Internet would have made it possible to perceive the problem early on," Benedict, 81, said in the letter. "I have learned the lesson that in the future in the Holy See we will have to pay greater attention to that source of news." The pope's spokesman, Federico Lombardi, on February 27 said Williamson must publicly retract his views on the Holocaust before he can be officially reinstated. Until now Williamson's apologies have been "generic and ambiguous," Lombardi said. Source: Articles by Bloomberg.com and Ecumenical News International

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Et tu, Franco?

27 Jun 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The reading from the Letter to the Galatians this Sunday reminds us that the law is fulfilled in the directive to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Spanish dictator general Francisco Franco apparently saw things differently. Contrary to reports that he sheltered Jews from the Nazis, recently uncovered archives show he ordered the creation of a list of some 6,000 Jews living in Spain for the Nazis. The list was turned over to German S.S. leader Henrich Himmler as the two countries negotiated Spain’s possible incorporation into the group of Axis powers that included Italy, according to an investigation by the Spanish newspaper El País. The newspaper printed the original order, recently unearthed from Spanish archives, that instructed provincial governors to draw up lists of “all the national and foreign Jews living in the province . . . showing their personal and political leanings, means of living, commercial activities, degree of danger, and security category.” Provincial governors were ordered to look out especially for Sephardic Jews, descendants of those expelled from Spain in 1492, because their Ladino language and Hispanic background helped them fit into Spanish society. “Their adaptation to our environment and their similar temperament allow them to hide their origins more easily,” said the order, sent out in May, 1941. Spaniards have long argued over Franco’s attitude toward Jews, which appeared to vary according to what was most useful to his foreign policy. With Hitler and Benito Mussolini defeated and the allies under pressure to oust Franco, his regime tried to cover the tracks of its collaboration with Hitler and rewrite the history of its policy towards Jews, says the newspaper. Most of the Jewish register was destroyed. Copies of some parts of it, however, remained in the provincial governors’ offices and these have since been found in archives. Source: An article by Giles Tremlett for Guardian.co.uk

holocaust jews spain francisco franco

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Muslim leaders pay their respects at Auschwitz

06 Feb 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds,” Jesus instructs his disciples in this Sunday’s gospel. In the hope that a good deed done today might help ensure that a past evil is never repeated, a large delegation of Muslim dignitaries visited the Auschwitz concentration camp Tuesday to pay tribute to the millions of Jews and others killed in the Holocaust. "Muslims have to stand up with Jewish friends because in Europe, anti-Semitism is rising--and where there is anti-Semitism, Islamophobia is not far away," said British Mufti Abduljalil Sajid, who said he knew of the Holocaust from books and movies but that it was his first visit to Auschwitz. "I wanted to see it with my own eyes--and teach others about the evil of hate," he said. "This should never happen again, to anybody." The delegation of some 150 people included representatives from Morocco, Jordan, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq as well as rabbis, Holocaust survivors, and Christian representatives. Several European public figures also were part of the group, including former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Israel Meir Lau, a former chief rabbi of Israel and himself a Holocaust survivor, said he was happy that such a large group of Muslim leaders was seeking to deepen their understanding of the Holocaust. The trip comes at a time when anti-Muslim rhetoric is rising in the West while some Muslim political leaders, such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, deny the reality of the Holocaust. It also follows the commemoration last week of the 66th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Nazi Germany's most notorious death camp. More than a million Jews as well as Gypsies, homosexuals, and others were murdered at the camp built in occupied Poland. Source: An article by Jamey Keaten for the Associated Press

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Israel recasts view of Holocaust-era Vatican

08 Jul 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Lord finds the Israelites to be “hard of face and obstinate of heart” in this Sunday’s first reading. Contemporary Israel recently softened its hard-line condemnation of Pope Pius XII’s conduct toward the massacre of Jews during World War II. Following a long diplomatic dispute with the Vatican, the Yad Vashem national Holocaust memorial unveiled a new wall panel last Sunday that nuances criticism of the former pontiff.Critics have long contended that Pius, who was pope from 1939 to 1958, could have done more to stop the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were murdered. Before his election as pope, he also served as the Vatican's secretary of state and before that as the papal envoy to Germany. Given his deep involvement in the Vatican's diplomatic affairs with the Nazis, what Pius did or didn't do during the war has become the single most divisive issue in Vatican-Jewish relations.A wall panel at the Yad Vashem memorial installed on Sunday still lists occasions when the wartime pontiff did not protest the slaughter of Europe's Jews. But it also offers the views of defenders who say the church's "neutrality" helped save lives. "This is an update to reflect research that has been done in the recent years and presents a more complex picture than previously presented," Yad Vashem said in a statement.The new text also points to Pius' prominent role in the church's negotiations with Nazi officials and includes criticism of the Vatican for not opening its archives to allow historians to research the actions of the Holy See at the time, noting that until researchers have access to "all relevant" materials the topic will "remain open to further inquiry."The papal envoy in Israel, Antonio Franco, welcomed what he called "the positive evolution. . . . For the Holy See, for the church, it's a step forward in the sense that it evolves from the straight condemnation to the evaluation," including the position of the pontiff's backers. Franco said that the Vatican's archives from the era continue to be catalogued and will be opened to the public once the work in finished. He offered no timeline for completion of this task. Sources: Articles by Judith Sudilovsky for Catholic News Service and Amy Teibel for the Associated Press

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Never again, Israelis vow in silence

14 Apr 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The narrator of the Sunday reading from the Book of Revelation testifies to having “heard the voices of many angels … the living creatures and the elders . . . [who] cried out in a loud voice: ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.’ ” As sirens wailed out across the land, the entire nation of Israel, from elders to children, honored those slain in the Holocaust on Monday as the entire nation came to a standstill for two minutes.Pedestrians stood in place, buses stopped on busy streets, and cars pulled over on major highways, their drivers standing on the roads with their heads bowed, in the annual day of remembrance. In homes and businesses people stopped what they were doing to pay homage to the victims of the Nazi genocide, in which a third of world Jewry was annihilated.The ceremony, known as "Every Person Has a Name," tries to go beyond the incomprehensible numbers to personalize the stories of individuals, families, and communities destroyed during the war. The annual remembrance is one of the most solemn on Israel's calendar.Homily hint: As the years pass and memory fades, there is a danger of complacency when it comes to horrors such as the Holocaust. Complacency, however, is what made the Nazi takeover possible. Encourage your faith community to be vigilant in defense of religious freedom and human rights for all. Source: An article by Aron Heller for the Associated Press

israel holocaust holocaust remembrance day every person has a name

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Never again, Israelis vow in silence

14 Apr 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The narrator of the Sunday reading from the Book of Revelation testifies to having “heard the voices of many angels … the living creatures and the elders . . . [who] cried out in a loud voice: ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.’ ” As sirens wailed out across the land, the entire nation of Israel, from elders to children, honored those slain in the Holocaust on Monday as the entire nation came to a standstill for two minutes.Pedestrians stood in place, buses stopped on busy streets, and cars pulled over on major highways, their drivers standing on the roads with their heads bowed, in the annual day of remembrance. In homes and businesses people stopped what they were doing to pay homage to the victims of the Nazi genocide, in which a third of world Jewry was annihilated.The ceremony, known as "Every Person Has a Name," tries to go beyond the incomprehensible numbers to personalize the stories of individuals, families, and communities destroyed during the war. The annual remembrance is one of the most solemn on Israel's calendar.Homily hint: As the years pass and memory fades, there is a danger of complacency when it comes to horrors such as the Holocaust. Complacency, however, is what made the Nazi takeover possible. Encourage your faith community to be vigilant in defense of religious freedom and human rights for all. Source: An article by Aron Heller for the Associated Press

israel holocaust holocaust remembrance day every person has a name

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