The history of the Catholic Church on issues dealing with anti-Semitism or anti-Muslim issues is hardly among its actions in defense of freedom. Pope Benedict since assuming the responsibility of heading the Catholic Church has allied himself with forces of reaction who seek a return to an earlier era of time. The Pope’s decision to reinstate a bishop who had publicly stated there was no Holocaust and no Jews were gassed to death has infuriated Jews throughout the world. Israel’s highest Jewish body severed ties with the Vatican and the chief rabbinate wrote to the Holy See expressing “sorrow and pain” at the decision to reinstate a bishop who believes “not one(Jew) of them was (killed) by gassing in a chamber.”
The Pope expressed his “full and indisputable solidarity” with Jews and expressed his view there was a Holocaust. Perhaps, Bishop Bernard Williamson can explain why Pope John XXII, who was a priest during WWII worked so hard to save the lives of Italian Jews. Was he part of a Jewish plot to claim there was a Holocaust when none existed? Perhaps, the good bishop can explain pictures, films, and first hand witnesses such as General Dwight Eisenhower who visited the death camps and saw the gas chambers.
I believe Pope Benedict should return to the 14th century when things were clear to all Catholics about what constituted the “truth.”