The intervention of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor will intensify the worldwide uproar triggered by the Pope's decision to lift the ban on Bishop Richard Williamson who has questioned the killing of six millions Jews by the Nazis.
Posted on 02/06/2009 5:48:43 AM PST by NYer
The intervention of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor will intensify the worldwide uproar triggered by the Pope's decision to lift the ban on Bishop Richard Williamson who has questioned the killing of six millions Jews by the Nazis.
The Cardinal, in a letter to Dr Jonathan Sacks the Chief Rabbi, a copy of which has been released to The Daily Telegraph, expressed his deep regret at the effect of the Vatican decree which has already been criticised by Angela Merkel the German Chancellor.
Dr Sacks, in his reply to the Cardinal, has warned that the episode has done "great damage" to relationships between the Jewish and Catholic faith. The Winchester and Cambridge educated Bishop Williamson, who runs a church in Argentina, has said that the Nazis did not use gas chambers to kill and that a maximum 300,000 Jews lost their lives. Last week he apologised for the "distress and problems" he had caused the Pope by his "imprudent" remarks but pointedly declined to withdraw them.
The Cardinal, in his letter, said: "I am writing to express my dismay at the effect of the Vatican decree... Specifically I naturally deplore the comments made by the Englishman, Rev Williamson, in his denial of the full horror of the Holocaust. His statement and views have absolutely no place in the Catholic Church and its teaching."
The bishop was exiled from the Roman Catholic church 20-years-ago because he was consecrated by the rebel conservative French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
The Cardinal said that the Pope had made clear his own repulsion at the Holocaust when he said: last year. "May the Shoah be for all a warning against forgetfulness, against denial or reductionism, because violence against a single human being is violence against all."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Pray for the Holy Father!
What has happened here...the Pope is infallible...a cardinal questions the pope?
The Pope is not infallible in non dogmatic matters.
Williamson’s stupid anti-holocaust statements have nothing to do with his excommunication.
If one was excommunicated for being stupid, half of any religion would be gone.
And the good Cardinal is going to find a very tough row to hoe from this point forward as would any superordinate taking on a boss. He is an idiot who might end up somewhere in the congo.
The Pope lifted an excommunication. That’s all. He did’t say the errant bishop is correct in denying the Holocaust. We don’t even know if the errant bishop still denies the Holocaust (maybe he has accepted the truth of what the national socialist party of Germany did to God-fearing people across Europe).
This cardinal is a raving liberal who has had it in for the Pope since the very first. He is actually due to retire this year - or maybe he’s already retired - and British Catholics will get a new leader. So far, nobody knows who it will be, but I can’t believe he could be any worse than this guy.
The Pope is only infallible in matters of faith, btw, and not in governance matters. But the thing about the Cardinal is that he has been unorthodox in faith for years, like most of those who are attacking the Pope, and they are using a spurious complaint about an administrative action to attack him, fundamentally, for his orthodoxy. The Pope’s decision to permit the Old Mass and now his attempt to reconcile supporters of the Old Mass infuriated this Cardinal and his ilk, because it means that the Church that you couldn’t get around, the Church that had doctrine and faith, might not be dead yet and in fact is coming back, despite their attempts to kill it.
The Pope isn’t infalible, except when speaking ex cathedra. However, it’s pretty bad form for a cardinal to be disloyal. I know my Pope isn’t an anti-semite, therefore this article does not compute.
Although I support the Pope, this is not an exercise of papal infallibility. Infallibility only applies to official teachings on matters of faith and moral addressed to the entire Church that are declared must be held by all the faithful. This is just an exercise of his ordinary executive authority.
This explains it. Thanks. My Grandma told me the pope is infallible; he is God’s messenger on earth...go to mass at least on Sundays (never believed in a Saturday mass) and everyday if you can...lol.
Reading the link the Cardinal didn’t do what the title suggests. Instead he commiserates on how the decree was received and the hard feelings they caused. He also continues to say the bishops weren’t reinstated as bishops but as members of the church.
Lying,stinking press. They turn a letter completely around to sow divisiveness and hatred in the Church. “Cardinal condemns Pope...” Oh, really? Then print more of the letter that shows it.
True...how are you? How is the job situation going. Are you still in Michigan?
This article is trying to pit the cardinal against the pope, but it appears that that misrepresents the cardinal’s actual remarks, at least as reported in this rag:
“The Cardinal, in his letter, said: ‘I am writing to express my dismay at the effect of the Vatican decree...’”
He’s dismayed at the EFFECT of the decree. I think that even the pope is unhappy at how it was interpreted, and thus what has been its EFFECT.
“’...Specifically I naturally deplore the comments made by the Englishman, Rev Williamson, in his denial of the full horror of the Holocaust. His statement and views have absolutely no place in the Catholic Church and its teaching.’”
Lots of condemnation of the remarks of Bishop Williamson, but none of the pope.
“The Cardinal said that the Pope had made clear his own repulsion at the Holocaust when he said: last year. ‘May the Shoah be for all a warning against forgetfulness, against denial or reductionism, because violence against a single human being is violence against all.’”
Then the cardinal actually QUOTES APPROVINGLY the pope against BISHOP WILLIAMSON, not against the lifting of the excommunication.
He then goes on later in the article to point out that the SSPX bishops are no longer excommunicated, but have not been regularized, and hold no clerical standing in the actual Catholic Church.
Livius, thanks for your post. I am relieved to know this Cardinal is a raving lib. Nice for you that he’ll be retiring soon — Mahoney has three years!! aarrrggg.
Thank you! Finally somebody says what I was thinking, this Cardinal did no such thing as going against the Pope. Sheesh, don’t words actually mean anything anymore. In this instance, the British Cardinal, despite his past whatever, is not guilty of what they’re saying.
Hmmmm, folks just don’t think anymore, and anyone here who is eating this crap sandwich just as the misleading headline would have you believe, needs remedial reading comprehension.
I see Bishop Williamson as an off-the-wall conspiracy theorist. Don’t people like him usually take medication for this stuff? Probably should. I think that he is an old man who obviously loves God and devoted his life to being a priest and serving the Church and he should be brought back into the flock before he dies. Everyone deserves to be forgiven and given a chance to repent or recant or get some anti-psychotic drugs before they die.
I find the big outcry from world leaders over this old windbag to be pretty pompous and self righteous to say the least.
Where was the outrage when serpent-tongue Nancy Pelosi endorsed abortion to millions of people watching her on tv? That was pure evil. She tried so hard to muddy Church teaching on the beginning of life. Even the newsman who interviewed her (Tom Brokaw, I think) looked amazed and disgusted when he corrected her on her answer. He said, “Church teaching is clear.”
I love and admire Pope Benedict and I think that he is absolutely right about drawing these guys back into the Church. This is one of the benefits of being new to the Church. Benedict XVI is the only Pope I know and I trust his judgement.
I picked up his book on The Sacrament of Charity. Haven’t started to read it, yet. He is just too cool.
It has to be said that while the Cardinal did not "condemn" the Pope as the headline ridiculously claims, neither did he offer a ringing endorsement of the Pope. Instead he laments "the effect" of the decree.
That is lame and lends itself to various interpretations. Not surprisingly, The Telegraph has obliged and put the very worst interpretation possible on the Caridnal's words.
What was needed was a clear and unapologetic reason for the decree, what it means canonically, and then a repudiation of Williamson. Not this doublespeak.
The thing that I have never understood is that Obama essentially rehabilitated another Holocaust denier, who on top of that hosted a conference of Holocaust deniers and still talks every day about how he wants to kill Jews: Ahmadinejad. And Obama was very specific that would be no conditions for him to meet when entering into discussions with the US. Yet the press says not a word.
Well, your Grandma was right about that! I don’t like Saturday masses, either - they’re just not ...well, Sunday masses. No other way to put it!
Mahony must have been bishop at the age of 12. I can’t believe how long it’s taking him to hit retirement age.
Yeah. Very true. Ahmadinejad doesn’t deny the holocaust. He wants to bring it on again and destroy the Jews and Israel completely. He is actively seeking nuclear weapons to destroy them. He’s a monster!
On the other hand, the old Bishop wouldn’t hurt anyone and has taken vows to God to love all of His people.
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