Talking gibberish

by Editor · February 11, 2009

It is puzzling that the lifting of an excommunication of an individual who intolerably denies the extent of the Holocaust should have placed in question Pope Benedict�s own views on the subject, even by people who should have known better, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The pope has frequently condemned the Nazi genocide of Jews, most prominently in his 2005 visit to a synagogue in Cologne, Germany, and in his 2006 visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp. There can be no question at all about Pope Benedict�s condemnation of the Nazi regime. His views are on the record, as Mrs Merkel and other critics ought to know.

The remission of the excommunication of the schismatic Bishop Richard Williamson, who is perpetuating the lie that no Jews died in Nazi gas chambers, does not imply any form of tolerance for his views. Bishop Williamson was excommunicated for being in breach of canon law. His excommunication, like that of the three other traditionalist bishops, was lifted because the conditions which provoked their excommunication two decades ago now somehow do not apply. If the canonical processes governing the lifting of the excommunications are satisfied, then unrelated matters, even the most execrable opinions of an anti-Semite, simply do not apply.

Of course, there are grounds on which one might contest the act of papal clemency. Cardinal Kasper, whose criticism of the curia (and implicitly of Pope Benedict) in an interview with Vatican Radio is quite remarkable, might well have such reservations. If lifting these excommunications was an act of expediency, as some observers have suggested, then the pope�s decision may be licitly questioned on those grounds.

In any case, Bishop Williamson is not (yet) a representative of the Roman Catholic Church � and given his noxious views, he would not occupy any senior position without first recanting his Holocaust denial, as the Vatican�s Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, has already indicated.

In our media-saturated times, the Church needs to be watchful about what officials say in public. The Church�s credibility in the fight against Aids, for example, was compromised by the patently untrue scientific claims about condoms offered by the late Cardinal Alfonso L�pez Trujillo.

In that respect, it is unfortunate that the appointment of Austrian Fr Gerhard Wagner as auxiliary bishop of Linz should have coincided with the furore over the Williamson matter. Fr Wagner has publicly stated his belief that the devastation of the US city of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was �divine retribution� for the city�s supposed permissiveness and acceptance of homosexuals.

The notion of the vengeful God administering collective punishment even on the innocent for the moral failings of some is desperately antiquated and quite in conflict with the Church�s message of a loving God. How can a bishop preach God�s love effectively when he sees the Almighty as an indiscriminate punisher? What are the faithful to make of Bishop-elect Wagner�s visions of an angry God at a time when the Holy Father is emphasising that God is love, as the title of his first encyclical put it with such succinct grace?

We must trust that Bishop-elect Wagner is otherwise suitably qualified to exercise the episcopal function, and hope that as he takes his office, he will be urged to be more� prudent when communicating with the public.

The Williamson controversy highlights how much damage the Church�s reputation can suffer owing to the crank views of one person (even if he doesn�t hold office in the Catholic Church). Cardinal Kasper described Bishop Williamson�s Holocaust denial as �gibberish�. Church officials must be intensely vigilant to avoid the dissemination of all other forms of gibberish.