Roundup: US congressmen, bishops, editors react to lifting of excommunications

February 02, 2009

Bishops and others are weighing in on Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to lift the excommunications of four bishops of the Society of St. Pius X. Nearly 50 Catholic US congressmen have called Pope Benedict to denounce Bishop Richard Williamson’s remarks on the Holocaust more explicitly:

As Catholic Members of Congress, we are writing to express our deep concerns with your decision to reinstate Bishop Richard Williamson to communion with the Catholic Church at the same time that Bishop Williamson publicly denies that the Holocaust occurred or that such was the policy under Adolf Hitler. We do not question your reasons for revoking the excommunication of Bishop Williamson or your right to do so, but we fail to understand why the revocation was not accompanied by an emphatic public rejection of his denial of the Holocaust … [T]his is too sensitive an issue to be handled without a direct repudiation of Bishop Williamson’s views. As a spiritual leader and the head of the Catholic Church, we believe it is vital that you publicly state your unequivocal position on this matter so that it is clear where the Church stands on one of the most consequential events of the 20th century.

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(The Congressional letter was organized by Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, who had collected signatures for another letter to the Pope, protesting his statement that proponents of abortion should not receive Communion, in 2007.) Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston and Archbishop Kevin McDonald of Southwark, like Pope Benedict, distinguished the lifting of the excommunications from statements about the Holocaust made by Bishop Williamson. German theologians were more critical, as was Bishop Gebhard Fuerst of Rottenburg-Stuttgart: the pontiff’s decision, he said, has led to “external and internal alienation from the Church on the part of many believers, to a betrayal of trust especially among Jewish sisters and brothers in their relationship to the Church, and to a considerable disturbance in the Christian-Jewish dialogue.”

 

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Further information:

• Catholic Members of Congress Express Concern to Pope Benedict XVI over Bishop Williamson’s Denial of the Holocaust (Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro)
• House Democrats rap Pope's stand against pro-abortion pols (CWN, May 15, 2007)
• It is never too late to Arise! (Cardinal Sean’s Blog)
• O'Malley defends pope's decision (Boston Globe)
• The Pope and excommunications (The Times)
• Pope criticised over Holocaust denier (AAP)
• Israel's Relations to Vatican Strained Over Holocaust-Denying Bishop (Deutsche Welle)
• Editorial: Papal action opens rifts (Saginaw News)