Rehabilitation of Holocaust Denier Fall Out Continues

The fall out from the Nazi Pope's rehabilitation of Holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson just keeps on exploding. Particularly in Papa Ratzi's home country of Germany where he is under fire both from senior Catholic clerics and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It is almost entertaining to see Benedict XVI - who is all to accustomed to sycophants kissing his ass and groveling to him - find himself with the political equivalent of shrapnel exploding all around him. One theologian is even calling on Benedict to step down as the head of the Roman Catholic Church - certainly something I would applaud. Breitbart.com has stories on both the reactions within the German Church hierarchy and Merkel's calls for Benedict to clear up his position on the Holocaust. Here are highlights from Merkel's demands:

*

BERLIN (AP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Pope Benedict XVI to make a "very clear" rejection of Holocaust denials after a former bishop was rehabilitated by the Vatican. Her rare and public demand came amid increasing outrage among Germany's Roman Catholic leaders over the pope's decision to lift the excommunication of British-born Richard Williamson, who questioned whether 6 million Jews were gassed during the Nazi Holocaust.

*

Merkel said she "does not believe" there has been adequate clarification of the Vatican's position on the Holocaust amid the firestorm of controversy that broke out after Williamson's rehabilitation by the German-born pope. . . . The issue is particularly sensitive in Germany, where denial of the Holocaust is a crime and Roman Catholic leaders have worked hard to restore relations with the Jewish community. As a young man in Germany, Benedict, then called Joseph Ratzinger, served briefly in the Hitler Youth corps.

*

As for the growing firestorm within the Church in Germany over the rehabilitation of Richard Williamson, here are some additional highlights from Breitbart:

*

Attacks on Pope Benedict XVI's decision to lift the excommunication of a Holocaust denier escalated Monday, with one theologian calling on him to step down as the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Criticism following the pope's January 24 announcement has been particularly cutting in Germany, where denying the Holocaust is a crime punishable with a jail sentence.

*

"If the pope wants to do some good for the Church, he should leave his job," eminent liberal Catholic theologian Hermann Haering told the German daily Tageszeitung. "That would not be a scandal, a bishop has to relinquish his position at 75 years, a cardinal loses his rights at 80 years," he said. Pope Benedict is 81.

*

[I]n Germany, high-ranking Catholic officials said the pope risked losing vital support. "There is obviously a loss of confidence" in the pope and "rehabilitating a denier is always a bad idea," the bishop of Hamburg, Werner Thissen, told the daily Hamburger Abendblatt on Monday. The bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Gebhard Furst, meanwhile spoke of his "uncertainty, incomprehension and deception" in the national Bild.

*

In Austria, where Pope Benedict last week named a controversial ultra-conservative priest as auxiliary bishop in Linz, criticism also came from within the Church. Vienna's cardinal and archbishop, Christoph Schoenborn, on Sunday lashed out at the decision to bring Williamson back into the fold, saying that "he who denies the Holocaust cannot be rehabilitated within the Church."