By Flavia Krause-Jackson
Bloomberg
March 12, 2009
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aqFn.B.kMqHg&refer=europe
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March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Pope Benedict XVI said the Vatican made “mistakes” in its handling of a Holocaust-denying priest who was re-admitted into the Catholic Church.
The German-born pope has come under attack for his decision in January to lift the excommunication of Richard Williamson, an English bishop who at that time said in a television interview that there was “no historical evidence” for the Nazi genocide. His anti-Semitic views were distributed by media outlets on the Internet.
“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 a letter addressed to Catholic bishops worldwide and distributed by the Vatican today in Rome. “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 Vatican had initially said the timing of the bishop’s return to the fold was unrelated to his comments on the Holocaust. Benedict’s actions were part of a broader move to heal a rift with ultra-conservatives who opposed changes in the Second Vatican council, the Vatican said.
“An unforeseen mishap for me was the fact that the Williamson case came on top of the remission of the excommunication,” the pope wrote. “That this overlapping of two opposed processes took place and momentarily upset peace between Christians and Jews, as well as peace within the Church, is something which I can only deeply deplore.”
Banished
Williamson and three other bishops were banished from the Catholic Church in 1988 by John Paul II, Benedict’s predecessor, because they had been consecrated without papal permission by Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the Society of Pius X that opposed the Church’s modernization in the 1960s.
“Another mistake, which I deeply regret, is the fact that the extent and limits of the provision of 21 January 2009 were not clearly and adequately explained at the moment of its publication,” the pope said, referring to a Jan. 24 statement that announced his decision to lift the excommunications.
The pope’s spokesman, Federico Lombardi, on Feb. 27 said Williamson must publicly retract his views on the Holocaust, the murder of 6 million European Jews under Nazi German rule, before he can be officially reinstated. Until now, Williamson’s apologies have been “generic and ambiguous,” he said.
The pope also addressed criticism he had focused too much on the schism with the 486 followers of Lefebvre’s order.
“But the question still remains: Was this measure needed? Was it really a priority? Aren’t other things perhaps more important?” the pope said. “Of course there are more important and urgent matters.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson in Rome at fjackson@bloomberg.net
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