IN WHAT appears to be an attempt to heal a 20-year schism in the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI is about to lift the excommunications of four traditionalist “Lefebvre” bishops, according to Italian media reports yesterday.
Whilst the Holy See would neither confirm nor deny the reports, many Vatican commentators believe the pope has already signed the pontifical decree cancelling the 1988 excommunications of four bishops from the Society of Saint Pius X, the society founded in 1970 by the controversial, traditionalist French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who died in 1991.
Having served as a Vatican diplomat and then as superior general of the Holy Ghost Fathers, Archbishop Lefebvre made international headlines in the 1970s and 1980s through his virulent opposition to many of the changes embodied in the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council.
In particular, he and his followers rejected the introduction of Mass in the local language, opting instead to use the traditional Tridentine Latin Mass ...
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0123/1232474675771.htmlRome's rabbi opposes papal move to reconcile with SSPX, cites bishop's Holocaust denial
January 23, 2009
Rome's chief rabbi has urged Pope Benedict XVI to reconsider plans to lift the excommunication imposed on bishops of the Society of St. Pius X, because of the statements by one of those bishops questioning the reality of the Holocaust. Rabbi Ricardo Di Segni said it was "inconceivable" that the Pontiff was not aware that SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson is a Holocaust denier ...
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=1748ADL To Vatican: Do Not Rehabilitate Holocaust Denier Bishop
New York, NY, January 23, 2009 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today expressed deep concern at reports that Pope Benedict XVI is preparing to lift the excommunication of a bishop who has said, "I believe there were no gas chambers" in reference to the Holocaust, and who rejects modern teachings of the Church about Judaism.
Reports say the Vatican is preparing to rehabilitate Bishop Richard Williamson, a member of the Society of St. Pius X and a staunch traditionalist who rejects the teachings of Nostra Aetate. Bishop Williamson denies that six million Jews were deliberately slaughtered during the Holocaust and has embraced the infamous anti-Semitic forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" as fact.
In a letter to Walter Cardinal Kasper, President of the Pontifical Commission on Religious Relations With the Jews, ADL wrote that lifting Bishop Williamson's excommunication "could become a source of great tension between Catholics and Jews" ...
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/VaticanJewish_96/5450_96.htmPosted on Sat, Jan. 24, 2009
Holocaust-denial remarks stir new dispute for Vatican
Its ties with Jews risked a crisis over comments by an excommunicated British bishop.
By Victor L. Simpson
Associated Press
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican's relations with Jews risked a new crisis yesterday after an excommunicated British bishop - reportedly in line for rehabilitation - said historical evidence "is hugely against six million Jews having been deliberately gassed" during World War II.
Two Italian newspapers reported Thursday that Pope Benedict XVI planned to lift the excommunication of Richard Williamson and three other bishops punished for having been consecrated without papal consent 20 years ago by conservative French Archbishop Marcel Lefevbre.
The Vatican declined to comment on the reports, but a spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, suggested yesterday that such a decree would be made public soon ...
The International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consulation also urged that the excommunications of all four - and especially Williamson - not be lifted, saying they were all opposed to pursuing relations with Jews, Protestants and Muslims ...
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20090124_Holocaust-denial_remarks_stir_new_dispute_for_Vatican.htmlPope Lifts Excommunication of Four Bishops
... Bishops Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson, and Alfonso de Galarreta were consecrated without papal approval by late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre on June 30, 1988 incurring excommunication latae sententiae.
The excommunication was later confirmed by a decree issued July 1st 1988 by the Congregation for Bishops.
In a letter dated December 15, addressed to Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos, President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, Bishop Fellay, also on behalf of three other Bishops, formally requested the removal of the decree.
In the letter, Bishop. Fellay affirmed the four bishops’: " will to remain Catholic and to place all efforts at the service of the .. Roman Catholic Church” to accept “its teachings” and most importantly, affirm their belief “in the Primacy of Peter and in its prerogatives” ...
http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=261046Pope rehabilitates Holocaust denier
Sat Jan 24, 2009 11:30am GMT
... One of the four bishops, the British-born Richard Williamson, has made a number of statements denying the full extent of the Nazi Holocaust of European Jews, as accepted by mainstream historians.
In comments to Swedish television broadcast Wednesday, he said "I believe there were no gas chambers" and only up to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, instead of six million ...
CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish organizations, called him "a despicable liar whose only goal is to revive the centuries-old hate against Jews" ...
http://uk.reuters.com/article/UKNews1/idUKTRE50N19920090124
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