Pope Reinstates Four Bishops, Including Holocaust Denier

[Are_grits_groceries]

<snip>
A particularly contentious part of the reinstatement on Saturday was the inclusion of Richard Williamson, a British-born cleric who in an interview last week said he did not believe that six million Jews died in the Nazi gas chambers. He has also given interviews saying that the United States government staged the Sept. 11 attacks as a pretext to invade Afghanistan.

The four reinstated men are members of the Society of St. Pius X, which was founded by a French archbishop, Marcel Lefebvre, in 1970 as a protest against the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Archbishop Lefebvre made the four bishops in unsanctioned consecrations in Switzerland in 1988, prompting the immediate excommunication of all five by Pope John Paul II.

Later that year, Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, sought to regularize the church’s relationship with the society. Archbishop Lefebvre died in 1991.

In a statement Saturday, the Vatican said that the pope would “reconsider” whether to formally affirm the four as full bishops, but referred to the men by that title.
<snip>
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/world/europe/25pope.html?hp

The Pope is really something. And he says Obama is arrogant.

[kenny blankenship]

1. Just proves the old saying: You can take the Pope out of the Hitler Youth

But you can't make him stop crapping in his hat.

[w4rma]

2. Is Ratzinger remaking the Catholic Church as a Nazi organization? (nt)

[bushmeister0]

4. You mean it wasn't to begin with?

Didn't Hitler base the organization of the Schutzstaffel (SS) on the Jesuits?

[Hawkowl]

3. Pope is an evil shit bag

Ratzenberger is Nazi shit bag who tacitly condones the molestation of children by his minions. He is one giant step backward from JP II.

[tom_paine]

5. Wow, the BushPope really does still have warm feelings of his Hitler Youth.

I wish I was joking.

[emilyg]

6. I miss our Polish pope very much.

[hughee99]

7. I think Williamson is right about the Holocaust...

(though I admittedly didn't read the full text of his comments). Not all 6 million of the Jews died in gas chambers. Some died of disease, starvation, were worked to death, shot, hung, drowned or died as a result of inhuman medical experiments performed on them.

All in all, he's a douchebag anyway, though.

[cali]

10. I don't think you agree with Williamson.

From Wiki:

Williamson has expressed controversial views about Jews. He called Jews "enemies of Christ" and urges their conversion to Catholicism.<38><39><40> He claims that Jews and Freemasons have contributed to the "changes and corruption" in the Catholic Church<41><42><43><38> He has also stated that Jews aim at world dominion<3><44> and has endorsed The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.<3><45> Williamson has denied that he is antisemitic, stating that he goes against "adversaries of Our Lord Jesus Christ", that not all Jews are such, and that he also attacks other other groups such as Communists and Freemasons.<3><38><39><23>

Williamson has been charged with Holocaust denial.<38><43><46><42><47> He has denied the existence of gas chambers and has claimed that not six million but 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps.<13><11> Williamson has also praised Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel.<38><42><43><39[br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Williamson_(bishop)#2009_controversy

[hughee99]

11. As I said, I didn't read all of his comments. n/t

[MadHound]

8. Hmm, how many folks said to forgive this pope his Nazi indiscretions?

Who said that he was a young man then, and he's changed?

Sorry, but he's still a goddamn Nazi pope.

[DonCoquixote]

9. Here is a scary thought

I know that most Europeans that post on here are the liberal sort, but...sometimes I worry that there are enough of this sort to propel fascists back into power. Regardless of anyone's position on Israel, it is apparent Jew baiting will be accommodated, as well as the other half of Antisemitism, Arab baiting. Before you laugh, keep in mind that in France, Sarkozy took advantage of a divided left to rise to power, outright campaigning on anti-immigration (which in France, means anti-arab) Who is to say the Church is not preparing to get some influence back, as it sells itself as an alternative.