It still isn't true, I tell you!

Swedish television coverage of what the pope knew and when he knew it is now scheduled to air tonight and the Catholic News Agency to reports:

The director of the Holy See’s press office, Father Federico Lombardi, denied again today that Pope Benedict knew Bishop Richard Williamson held Holocaust diminishing beliefs before the Pontiff lifted the excommunication of the Pius X Society bishop. Such charges only “lead to creating confusion for no reason,” he said.

Whew!

Re-Excommunicate Holocaust-denying Bishop Williamson?

When Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles banned the Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson from Archdiocese of Los Angeles churches, he went a step beyond the Vatican. A long step. He said:

Holocaust deniers like Williamson will find no sympathetic ear or place of refuge in the Catholic Church, of which he is not --- and may never become --- a member.

Mark Silk at SpiritualPolitics observes:

Without criticizing the pope, [Mahony has] seized on Williamson's Holocaust foot-dragging to take the next step and send him back into outer darkness. It will be interesting to see if any of his peers follow his lead.

Most importantly, what plans does the Pope Benedict XVI have now?

Cardinal Mahony bans Holocaust-denying Bishop Williamson from Archdiocese of Los Angeles Churches

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles today announced he is barring the Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson from entering any church in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

In an extraordinary move, Mahony and two Jewish leaders penned a joint op-ed piece published in both the archdiocesan newspaper, The Tidings, and a local Jewish newspaper, the Jewish Journal.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, Rabbi Gary Greenebaum and Seth Brysk wrote in part:

Williamson's recent "apologies" fall far short of satisfying the letter or the spirit of the Vatican's directives. Yet while Williamson seems unwilling or unable to reject his odious positions, many religious and civic leaders have used his situation to acknowledge the Holocaust and to affirm its unique and terrible place in history.

We are heartened by the many leaders around the world who have rejected Williamson's views. In particular, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Argentine Minister of the Interior Florencio Randazzo, whose country recently expelled Williamson, not to mention nearly 50 Catholic members of the U.S. Congress who wrote to the Vatican to express their concerns.

In the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Williamson is hereby banned from entering any Catholic church, school or other facility, until he and his group comply fully and unequivocally with the Vatican's directives regarding the Holocaust. Later this year, I, Cardinal Mahony, will visit Israel and pay my respects to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust at the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem.

Holocaust deniers like Williamson will find no sympathetic ear or place of refuge in the Catholic Church, of which he is not --- and may never become --- a member. . . .

For our part, as Catholic and Jewish leaders in Los Angeles, we recognize that only by working together with renewed vigilance will we be able to keep anti-Semitism at bay and prevent its reassertion as a legitimate expression.

Their entire statement is here.

Bishop Williamson has made himself an object of repudiation and placed himself in danger of being cast out of Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) by failing to recant promptly his repellent and historically unfounded views. Catholic thinking has suggested a suitably humble statement of the sort that has been overdue from Williamson, for decades.

Re-excommunicate Williamson?

Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson balked at immediately meeting the pope's requirement that he recant.

"Since I see that there are many honest and intelligent people who think differently, I must look again at the historical evidence," the British bishop was quoted as saying.

Germany's Catholic bishops responded by calling for his re-excommunication.

"Mr. Williamson is impossible and irresponsible," said Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference in an article published Saturday. "I now see no room for him in the Catholic Church."

The German tabloid press was even less oblique in its statements and characterized Williamson as dishonest in a variety of ways.

Williamson is "holed up in the seminary he runs in Argentina," and isn't talking to reporters.

Pope expresses 'full and indisputable solidarity' with the Jews

Responding to revulsion at the anti-Semitism of four traditionalist bishops whose excommunications were lifted Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed his "full and unquestionable solidarity with Jews."

JTA reported:

The pope said in his angelus prayer at his public audience Wednesday: "While I renew with affection the expression of my full and unquestionable solidarity with our (Jewish) brothers, I hope the memory of the Shoah will induce humanity to reflect on the unpredictable power of hate when it conquers the heart of man."

Vatican Radio reported that speaking of the Holocaust (haShoa), the Pope "firmly said:"

While I renew my affection for and complete solidarity with our Brothers of the First Alliance, I urge that the memory of the Shoah lead humanity to reflect on the unforeseeable power of evil when it conquers the Human Heart. May the Shoah be a warning to all against oblivion, against denial or revisionism, because violence committed against any one single human being is violence against all humanity. No man is an island, a well known poet once wrote. The Shoah teaches both the new and older generations, that only the demanding journey of listening and dialogue, of love and forgiveness can lead the world’s peoples, cultures and religions towards the desired goal of brotherhood and peace in truth. Never again may violence humiliate the dignity of man!

In an unusual front-page editorial the Vatican's daily newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, attempted to push back the appearanc of anti-Semitism apparent in restoration of the four bishops, said the gesture does not yet mean a return to “full communion” with the Church and moreover is a call to the “full acceptance of the Magisterium, obviously including the Second Vatican Council.” The editorial clearly addresses anti-Semitism in general and the Holocaust denial of Bishop Richard Williamson:

After noting that the declaration “Nostra aetate” deplores “the hatred, persecution and all manifestations of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews of any time and by any person” and that this is “a teaching for Catholics that is not open to opinion,” L’Osservatore Romano said that the recent statements of denial by the British bishop “contradict this teaching and are therefore seriously grave and lamentable. Made know before the document lifting the excommunication, they are thus—as we have written—unacceptable.”

The positions taken are clear, forceful and with additional action and absent further missteps may well heal the old, reopened wounds.