Jan 27, 2009 23:52 | Updated Jan 28, 2009 1:39
Chief Rabbinate cuts ties with Vatican
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel broke off official ties with the Vatican
indefinitely on Tuesday in protest over the Pope's decision to reinstate a
known Holocaust denier.
Pope Benedict XVI joins his hands during the weekly general audience in St.
Peter's Square at the Vatican.
Photo: AP [file]
The Chief Rabbinate also cancelled a meeting scheduled for March 2-4 in Rome
with the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.
In a letter to the commission's chairman, Cardinal Walter Casper, Chief
Rabbinate Director-General Oded Weiner wrote that "without a public apology and
recanting, it will be difficult to continue the dialogue."
According to a Chief Rabbinate source, the letter was leaked to the Israeli
press before it was received by the Vatican, which might further complicate
relations between the Chief Rabbinate and the Catholic Church.
Last week, in an attempt to heal a decades-old rift between the Church and a
group of ultra-conservative breakaway group of clergymen, Pope Benedict XVI
lifted the excommunication of four bishops. The four Catholic bishops belong to
the Society of Saint Pius, which opposed changes in Catholic doctrine made in
the 1960s under the Second Vatican Council.
<>One of them is Britain's Bishop Richard Williamson, who is being investigated
for Holocaust denial in Germany, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center. In a
recent interview with Swedish state television, Williamson denied the murder of
six million Jews by the Nazis. "I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews died in
Nazi concentration camps, but none of them in gas chambers," Williamson told
the interviewer.
"The historical evidence is hugely against six million Jews having been
deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler. I
believe there were no gas chambers," Williamson reportedly said.
He has also reportedly endorsed the anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of
Zion and claimed that Jews are bent on world domination.
In a parallel development Tuesday, Bishop Bernard Fellay, the superior general
of the Society of Saint Pius, distanced himself from Williamson's comments.
Fellay said he has forbidden Williamson from speaking publicly about any
historical or political questions and that his views "don't reflect in any way
the position of the society."
"We ask forgiveness of the Supreme Pontiff and all the men of good will for the
dramatic consequences of this act," Fellay said.
Haifa Chief Rabbi Shear Yishuv Cohen, chairman of the Rabbinate's commission,
told The Jerusalem Post that he expected Williamson to publicly retract his
statements before meetings could be renewed.
"I understand the Pope's efforts to bring about unity in the Church, but he
should be aware that, indirectly, he hurt Jews. We expect him to do the best to
repair the situation." Weiner's letter called Williamson's comments "odious"
and "outrageous."
Rabbi David Rosen, Director of the American Jewish Committee's Department for
Interreligious Affairs, and an advisory member of the Chief rabbinate's
commission, said that the Pope's decision has created an atmosphere of "bad
faith."
Rosen reckoned that the Pope's move to lift Williamson's excommunication, which
was made public just days before International Holocaust Day, was made due to a
lack of proper consultation.
"I tend to believe that the Pope simply was not informed about Williamson in
advance and now he is in a very uncomfortable situation."
Rosen said that the Pope had a history of improper preparation, leading to
large-scale blunders. He cited a speech made in Regensburg, Germany, in which
he quoted a medieval emperor who called Islam "evil and inhuman," comments that
sparked a wave of Islamic-led violence against Catholic churches around the
world.
Rosen said that the Rabbinate expected the Pope to take tangible steps against
Williamson.
"I don't think it is my place to tell the Church precisely what to do. But
Williamson should be censured in some way or forced to retract his statements.
"Until that happens, we may be in contact with the Vatican on an individual
level, but there will be no official meetings."
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