[Buggman]

I think the Rabbinate has every right to protest in the strongest possible manner, given the general atmosphere of Holocaust denial that's infected the Middle-East and growing segments of Europe of late. Like it or not, the Pope's move sends out the (inadvertent, given what I know of Pope Benedict XVI, including reading his writings as Cardinal Ratzinger) message that the RCC considers Holocaust denial to be no big deal--not only to the Rabbinate, but to the deniers themselves.

I think that a wiser course would have been to issue the reconciliation and a general excommunication of Holocaust deniers at the same time. And I think that the knee-jerk defense of the Vatican and pile-on to the Rabbinate demonstrated by some of the laity here doesn't help Jewish-Christian relations, and needs to be called out.

Understand, I like the current Pontiff. I do think that he made a misstep. I also think that if the Rabbinate responded any less strongly, the concerns of the Jewish people on this matter would be swept under the rug with a few platitudes.

Shalom.

[ladyjane]

Are you suggesting that anyone who denies the holocaust should be excommunicated? What about non-Catholics? What would happen to them?