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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

internet richard williamson benedict xvi holocaust denial society of st pius x excommunication federico lombardi

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Pope to St. Pius X Society: Piety must include fidelity

07 Oct 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In Sunday’s second reading, Alice Camille points out in "Exploring the Word," “Jesus calls us brothers and sisters, which makes us kin to him in the Spirit.” But the family-feeling is lost on some traditionalist Catholics who broke away from Rome over Vatican II reforms. They are not ready to reunite with their fellow Catholics, despite Pope Benedict XVI’s best efforts, observers have concluded.Two leaders of the breakaway Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) have recently rejected Benedict’s conditions for their rehabilitation after a series of contacts. SSPX head Bishop Bernard Fellay, whom church officials expect will send a formal reply to Rome soon, has not yet indicated the group's final position, but it is not expected to be positive.A formal or de facto SSPX rejection would be a setback for the pope, whose decision to lift excommunications on its four bishops in 2009 backfired when it emerged that one was a notorious Holocaust-denier, a fact of which the Vatican was unaware. “The SSPX has set conditions that are simply unacceptable to the pope,” Nicolas Seneze, a French expert on the Society, told Reuters. “Their discussions are now back at square one.”The Swiss-based SSPX separated from Roman Catholic Church in 1988 in protest against the 1960s reforms that replaced Latin with local languages at Mass, forged reconciliation with Jews, and acknowledged that other religions may also offer a path to salvation.In 2010 the Vatican launched closed-door theological discussions with the rebels aimed at an agreement that would make the SSPX a "personal prelature" or autonomous institution in the church similar to the conservative group Opus Dei. Benedict insisted they must declare the Vatican Council and church doctrine promulgated since then to be valid Catholic teaching. Denying that has been a core principle of SSPX beliefs from the start.Homily hint: This Sunday provides an opportunity to discuss how being “big-C Catholic” also includes a commitment to a “small-c catholiic” relationship to the rest of the world. Source: An article by Tom Heneghan for Reuters

Vatican II benedict xvi society of st pius x second vatican council sspx bernard fellay nicolas seneze

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Vatican condemns anti-Semitic remarks

13 Jan 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the Psalm 29 option this Sunday we respond, “The Lord will bless his people with peace.” The Jewish people, to whom this promise was made so many centuries ago, under no circumstances can be labeled as “enemies” of the Catholic Church, the Vatican affirmed on Monday, repudiating comments by the head of the breakaway traditionalist group, the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX).The Vatican’s chief spokesperson, Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., said that it was “meaningless” and “unacceptable” to label Jews as “enemies” of the Catholic Church. “Both Pope Benedict XVI and his predecessor John Paul II personally engaged in dialogue with Jews,” he said. As a sign of the commitment, Lombardi noted the two popes’ visits to Jerusalem’s Western Wall, Judaism’s most sacred site, and to synagogues in Rome and elsewhere.The Vatican reassurance came after Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the SSPX, said on Dec. 28 that “the enemies of the church: the Jews, the Masons, the modernists,” were opposing the group’s reconciliation with the Roman Catholic Church. At Benedict XVI’s prompting, the Vatican in 2009 opened talks to repair the decades-long breach with the SSPX, focusing on the group’s rejection of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which among many changes revolutionized the church’s relations with Judaism.Anti-Semitic strains within the SSPX have been a major headache for the Vatican; shortly after Benedict lifted the 1988 excommunications of four SSPX bishops it emerged that one of them, Richard Williamson, was a vocal denier of the Holocaust.In a statement the American branch of the SSPX dismissed the “false accusations of anti-Semitism or hate speech” made against the group. It said the SSPX leader used the word “enemies” as a “religious concept,” referring to “any group or religious sect which opposes the mission of the Catholic Church and her efforts to fulfill it: the salvation of souls.”The Vatican is currently awaiting the SSPX’s response to a reconciliation offer submitted last June. Leaked SSPX documents slammed the proposal as “clearly unacceptable,” but the Vatican signaled in October that it is willing to give the traditionalists “additional time for reflection and study.”Homily hint: Anti-Semitism is like one of those virulent biological diseases that humanity must continue to fight in order to finally eradicate. We aren’t there yet, and there is no cure-all vaccine to inoculate the public. Alert your congregation to the ever-present risk of contagion. Sources: Articles by Alessandro Speciale for Religion News Service and Carol Glatz for Catholic News Service

benedict xvi society of st pius x jews federico lombardi anti-semitism sspx bernard fellay

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