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Titolo: NYT: Pope Rehabilitates Holocaust Denier

Pope Rehabilitates Holocaust Denier
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By REUTERS
Published: January 24, 2009
Filed at 8:25 a.m. ET
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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict Saturday rehabilitated a 
traditionalist bishop who denies the Holocaust, despite warnings from Jewish 
leaders that it would seriously harm Catholic-Jewish relations and foment 
anti-Semitism.
The Vatican said the pope issued a decree lifting the excommunication of 
four traditionalist bishops who were thrown out of the Roman Catholic Church 
in 1988 for being ordained without Vatican permission.
The four bishops lead the ultra-conservative Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), 
which has about 600,000 members and rejected modernizations of Roman 
Catholic worship and doctrine.
The Vatican said the excommunications were lifted after the bishops affirmed 
their willingness to accept Church teachings and papal authority.
In healing a 20-year-old schism that had wounded the Catholic Church, the 
decree looks set to spark one of the most serious crises in Catholic-Jewish 
relations in 50 years.
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 6 million.
Before the excommunication was lifted Rome's chief rabbi said Williamson's 
rehabilitation would open "a deep wound." 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."
Williamson said: "I believe that the historical evidence is hugely against 6 
million having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate 
policy of Adolf Hitler."
VATICAN DEFENDS DECREE
Asked about Williamson's comments, chief Vatican spokesman Father Federico 
Lombardi said they were "totally extraneous" to the lifting of the 
excommunications.
"This act regards the lifting of the excommunications, period," Lombardi 
told reporters.
"It has nothing to do with the personal opinions of a person, which are open 
to criticism, but are not pertinent to this decree."
Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust 
Survivors and their Descendants, said before the decree was issued:
"For the Jewish people and all persons who feel the pain of the terrible 
years of the Shoah, this development marks a dangerous blow to interfaith 
dialogue and encourages hate-mongers everywhere."
"For any Catholic clergy to embrace the anti-Semitic Holocaust denier is 
obscene," said Abe Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League in the 
United States.
"It would be an insult to Catholic-Jewish relations and the memory of the 
millions of Jews who perished because they were Jews."
Rabbi David Rosen, head of inter-religious affairs for the American Jewish 
Committee, asked the Vatican for clarification.
"While this is an internal Church matter, any embrace of a Holocaust denier 
is profoundly disturbing," he said.
Catholic-Jewish relations were already severely strained over the figure of 
wartime Pope Pius XII, who Jews have accused of turning a blind eye to the 
Holocaust. Jews have asked the Vatican, which denies the charges, to freeze 
the procedure that can lead to his sainthood pending more study of wartime 
records.
Pope Benedict has already made several gestures of reconciliation to the 
schismatic group, including allowing the unconditional return of the 
old-style Latin Mass.
That move also angered Jews because the ceremony includes a Good Friday 
prayer for their conversion.
(Editing by Michael Roddy)
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 Church in 1988 for being ordained without Vatican permission.
certo che la propaganda sionista č incredibile.
ha detto che secondo lui e secondo alcuni esperti non furono usate camere a 
gas per uccidere 6 milioni di persone e ne ha evidenziato i motivi.
Non ha detto perň che l'olocausto non sia mai avvenuto.
Solo che i morti non ci sono stati tutti lě.
la risposta sionista č stata rabbiosa.
addirittura si sono fatti approvare delle leggi perchč se ne vieti il solo 
parlarne.
e questo č tutto dire.
Potevano rispondere con argomenti scientifici, come si fa per le teorie 
dell'11.9.
hanno scelto la strada della censura infarcita di accuse del tutto 
infondate.

 Solo che i morti non ci sono stati tutti lě.
Probabilmente la stragrande maggioranza delle vittime della persecuzione 
contro gli ebrei durante il secondo conflitto mondiale non viene da lě. Il 
che nella mia umile opinione la dice lunga su come questa persecuzione a 
partire dagli anni '70 č diventata prima "the Holocaust", poi la "Shoah"