THE POPE AND THE HOLOCAUST

 

GIVE THE POPE A BREAK!

Bombast, belligerence and bombasity make for good newspaper copy but seldom enlighten the minds of inquiring readers.  The brouhaha over Pope Benedict's lifting of the excommunication of a traditionalist bishop, who holds an opinion that the holocaust never happened, is a cloud of confusion tinged with anti-Catholicism.  First, some facts:

• The Pope lifted the excommunication on several traditionalist Bishops who refused to accept the vernacular Mass authorized by Vatican II.  He did this as a sign of compassion and an outreach to bring the lost ones home.
• The excommunication does not rehabilitate these bishops.  They still have to conform to the decrees of Vatican II.  It's just a start.
• The lifting of the excommunication has nothing to do with the personal opinions of the bishops on any subject.  The fact that one of the bishops denies the holocaust is coincidental and did not enter into the Pope's decision.
• The media merged the two issues and made it appear that the Pope was complicit with the offending bishop.  That's just not true.
• The one critique that can be made is that the Pope was ill served by those aides who should have thought about the public relations aspect of the action.  The uproar is out of all proportion to the perceived offense.

After all this Pope has done to help Jewish-Catholic ties, he ought to be given the benefit of the doubt.  It's laughable to have the atheist Christopher Hitchens in Newsweek criticize the Pope who he doesn't honor and whose beliefs he does not subscribe to.  He and other media types simply are using this as an excuse to bash the Church.  And Angela Merkel, leader of Germany, is not so subtly inflaming her constituents to exorcise their collective guilt for the Holocaust by dumping their angst on the Pope. 

Already, the Vatican has taken steps to quell this controversy.  It is unfortunate and the Pope does not deserve the suffering.  Here's a prayer that cooler heads will prevail in the coming days.

Comments

[Steven Barr]

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