Politics | 02/12/2009 8:25 am

Pope Tries to Mend Fences, Condemns Holocaust Denial

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

Less than a week after he sparked a scandal by lifting the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying priest, Pope Benedict XVI now says — very strongly — that denying those horrible years is intolerable and unacceptable.

As he prepares to visit Israel, Benedict met Thursday at the Vatican with about 60 American Jewish leaders. The meetings — during which Benedict called the Holocaust a crime against humanity — are essentially damage control. Catholic-Jewish relations have been tense since the Pope last month lifted excommunications of four renegade traditionalist bishops, including Bishop Richard Williamson, who has said he doesn’t believe the Nazis used any gas chambers. Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the pope to voice her disapproval.

Seems like the pope has learned a little lesson.

"The hatred and contempt for men, women and children that was manifested in the Shoah (Holocaust) was a crime against humanity. This should be clear to everyone, especially to those standing in the tradition of the Holy Scriptures," Benedict said Thursday.

20 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

The pope… male leader of an all male city-state that condemns birth control. Why does anyone listen to him?

By DeBúrca obj on 02/12/2009 8:42 am

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I’m not being sarcastic when I say this but - if anyone knows for a fact the Holocaust is indeed real and did happen it would be the Pope. After all, he was there, he was a Nazi.

By Belinda Joy on 02/12/2009 9:14 am

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Belinda—he was in the German Army—not necessarily a member of the Nazi party.

By f p on 02/12/2009 9:30 am

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“He was 18 years old when the war ended, so everything that he had to do with the Nazi regime was as a very young man,” he said. “I don’t believe that there is any room for doubt that (the pope) of today is very different than the days he belonged in the Hitler Youth.” ~Moshe Zimmerman, a professor of German history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, played down the importance of the new pope’s membership in the Hitler Youth. I assumed this meant he was part of the Nazi party. I guess I was wrong. I apologize for stating that the Pope was a Nazi. He was merely a member of the Hilter Youth - a huge distinction I guess. And again, I’m not being sarcastic. http://www.infowars.com/articles/world/pope_benedict_israel_praises_desp…

By Belinda Joy on 02/12/2009 9:51 am

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I think the Pope was ill-advised when he lifted the excommunication. And, this firestorm is probably the best thing that could have happened because it will once again put the spotlight on those Catholic clergies who should no longer be part of the church. Belinda, I am surprised by your assertion too.

By Brooklyn Gal on 02/12/2009 9:55 am

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Why’s that? You mean that I said he was a Nazi and then clarified that as what he actually was a member of Hilter’s Youth?

By Belinda Joy on 02/12/2009 10:21 am

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Belinda, Please be fair. Check the time of your 2nd post. You “clarified” after I posted my comment. Do you have any facts that prove he personally did not believe in the Holocaust?? He made the decision to reinstate that bishop based upon the advice of his conservative advisers. This may be the best thing that has happened because it will open his eyes to those who wish to bring the church backwards instead of forward.

By Brooklyn Gal on 02/12/2009 11:07 am

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Brooklyn, Maybe we’re not understanding one another. I never said that the Pope did not believe in the Holocaust. My initial post was not said from sarcasm as I stated, nor was my response to your post. I meant in response to Bishop Richard Williamson who claims he doesn’t believe Nazi’s gassed Jews, the Pope, as a person who was part of the Nazi regime and surely was privy to the atrocities that took place, he can attest to the fact that Jews were indeed killed. Unlike others that blog on this site, I would never want to offend someone’s ethnicity, race or religion, so if what I said was wrong to say, I want to be corrected. But I don’t see that what I said was wrong.

By Belinda Joy on 02/12/2009 11:46 am

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I don’t think you’ve said anything wrong, Belinda, but perhaps a bit of clarification is necessary. There was a time in Germany when children as a matter of course enrolled in the Hitler Youth. To fail to do so not only resulted in the social ostracism of the child, but could result in the entire family being sent “away”, never to be seen again. (It was not only Jews and gypsies who were sent to the camps.) My mother, as the oldest child of a poor family, was, at the age of 13, hired out as a field hand to a wealthy farmer. When she did not go into town to sign up to join the local young women for Hitler group, the local head of the Nazi Party came out to the farm where she worked and told her she could either sign up or go to prison. My mother was a bull headed person, and her response was, “Go ahead and put me in prison, I might get a chance to rest there.” The farmer didn’t want to lose a good worker, so he paid the guy off to forget about her. That’s the way it was at that time and in that place.

By Marina B. on 02/12/2009 5:43 pm

Oh I hear you Marina, isn’t it something what your mother and my God-Parents had to live through. My God-Parents were Nazis when they were young and until the day they died, card carrying members of the communist party. Communists may I add, living in the United States, in a relatively small city in Wisconsin. Life wasn’t easy for them, few agreed with their beliefs. Certainly not my father, but he (as he taught me and my many siblings) to set aside political from personal. Growing up I heard countless stories of what life was like under the rule of Hitler. It always amazes me to hear anyone say the mass murders that took place never happened. In just typing that a light bulb went off in my head. I wonder if that has anything to do with why I become enraged when I hear people espouse erroneous information about Obama? To deny the truth, even when the truth is so glaring. And this Marina is why I love blog sites and the give and take of opinions and ideas…..so many times in the process of a simple exchange of thoughts I learn something about myself and how I “tick”. Thanks for being the catalyst for me learning this big lesson about my thought process.

By Belinda Joy on 02/12/2009 6:48 pm

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Thank YOU, Belinda. The stories I heard as I was growing up make me very wary of unquestioning partisanship, which is so often (and IMO, so erroneously) called “patriotism.” Like you, those stories also made me prone to anger at willfull ignorance. There are few things more destructive than willfull ignorance joined with intellectual dishonesty.

By Marina B. on 02/12/2009 7:16 pm