Merkel: Pope Must Clarify Holocaust Stance

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Pope Benedict XVI to make a "very clear" rejection of Holocaust denials after a former bishop was rehabilitated by the Vatican.

Her rare and public demand came amid increasing outrage among Germany's Roman Catholic leaders over the pope's decision to lift the excommunication of British-born Richard Williamson, who questioned whether 6 million Jews were gassed during the Nazi Holocaust.

Merkel said she "does not believe" there has been adequate clarification of the Vatican's position on the Holocaust amid the firestorm of controversy that broke out after Williamson's rehabilitation by the German-born pope.

Benedict last week expressed "full and indisputable solidarity" with Jews and warned against any denial of the horror of the Holocaust, but several leading German bishops have decried the German-born pope's decision and called for Williamson's rehabilitation to be revoked.

"I do not believe that sufficient clarification has been made," Merkel said.

The Vatican moved quickly to counter Merkel's suggestion.

"The pope's thinking on the subject of the Holocaust has been expressed very clearly," said Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi.

He cited Benedict's visit to a synagogue during his first visit to Germany as pope in 2005, a visit to Auschwitz in 2006 and his remarks during last week's general audience.

Lombardi quoted from what he called the pope's "unequivocal words" at that public audience. "I hope that the memory of the Shoah leads humanity to reflect on the unpredictable power of evil when it conquers the heart of men," he quoted the pope as saying. "May the Shoah be a warning for all against oblivion, against denial or reductionism."

Lombardi said that during the audience "the pope himself clearly explained the purpose of lifting the excommunication, which has nothing to do with any legitimization of positions denying the Holocaust, which were clearly condemned" by Benedict.

The issue is particularly sensitive in Germany, where denial of the Holocaust is a crime and Roman Catholic leaders have worked hard to restore relations with the Jewish community.

As a young man in Germany, Benedict, then called Joseph Ratzinger, served briefly in the Hitler Youth corps.

Earlier Tuesday, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, the bishop of Mainz, called for an apology from "a high level."

"There must also be consequences for those who are responsible for this," Lehmann said in an interview with broadcaster Suedwestfunk of the decision to rehabilitate Williamson.

(Sveriges Television, Sweden)

Williamson was consecrated by the late ultraconservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent. The Holy See has said that removing the excommunication did not imply the Vatican shared his views.

Williamson, in an interview broadcast last month on Swedish state TV (left), said that historical evidence "is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler."

He cited what he called the estimates of the "most serious" revisionists that "between 200,000 and 300,000 perished in Nazi concentration camps, but not one of them by gassing in a gas chamber."


For more info:

Sveriges Television (SVT) interview with Richard Williamson (English-subtitled version)

[neoconrcrazy]

I demand clarification of and world responsibility for;

-the Assyrian genocide
-the Armenian genocide
-the Rom (gypsey) genocide
- the American Indian genocide
-the Cambodian genocide
-the Stalinist genocides
- the genocides committed by Caesar in Gaul

shalom

[skipptowne]

Kudos to Merkel. Strip this Nazi anti-christ of his pompous disguise and arrest the Rat-zinger that lurks underneath for violating German laws. If you prick him, does he not bleed?

[cameraphone]

I deny that the Catholic Church exists!

[downsteamjm]

Alshiskabob: Your lamb must be on its period.

[marty1729]

The failed Muslim attempt to destroy the newborn state of Israel in 1948 was an attempt at genocide. Muslims countries promoted anti-Israeli propaganda and attempted an economic boycott against her. In 1956, Egypt closed the Suez Canal to Israeli ships, contrary to international law.
Since the 1880''s (not a typo), Arabs have perpetrated acts of terror against the Jews, including pogroms (Jerusalem 1929, for example).
The only justifiable accusation of genocide in the middle east can be directed against Muslims who keep dreaming the dream of a second Holocaust, instead of planning for modernity and prosperity through peaceful trade.

[downsteamjm]

Send Williamson to Iran. He is a ********* already.

[strangeworld]

The Catholic church would be wise to join the 21st century and weed the lunatic fringe out of their flock. The majority of Catholics in the USA do not stick too closely to the teachings and beliefs of the leaders of the church, who behave as though we are still in the dark ages. Under an out-of-touch Pope, perhaps flaying and burning at the stake will make a comeback at the Vatican.

[rudy6543]

This whole Holocaust denial thing doesn''''t even deserve a response. The killing of 6 million jews would have been an astonomical hoax. No way no how. There are pictures. We made sure of that because some general in the U.S. army ordered them taken for the sole purpose of proving that it happened. What foresight.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by scottyusa at 05:20 PM

Exactly. It wasn''t only Jews in those camps, so we have the eyewitness testimony of thousands of others still with us today, who aren''t Jewish, but had seen all the suffering. One Polish lady I know was in a Catholic school at the time and the nazis came and took her away to Auschwitz. There she was made a slave to Nazi woman who would do all kinds of atrocious acts on the prisoners. She wasn''t Jewish, so how can they accuse her of being part of a Jewish conspiracy to lie?

[scottyusa]

This whole Holocaust denial thing doesn''t even deserve a response. The killing of 6 million jews would have been an astonomical hoax. No way no how. There are pictures. We made sure of that because some general in the U.S. army ordered them taken for the sole purpose of proving that it happened. What foresight.

[biblethumpar]

That there sir Bishop needs to be Commended...