Word: bishops
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Controversy burns on a week after Pope Benedict XVI reversed the excommunication of the four bishops of the breakaway Lefebvrite movement, including a vocal Holocaust denier. Developments over just two days include: an Italian priest of the same arch-traditionalist group added his own doubts about Nazi gas chambers to those expressed last week by British-born Bishop Richard Williamson; another cleric from the splinter faction publicly criticized the Pope and condemned his 2006 visit to Istanbul's Blue Mosque; Israel's chief Rabbinic council said inter-faith talks with the Vatican should be put on hold, while others have...
Making matters worse was the timing and handling of the publication of the papal decree, which was released just three days after the airing of a Swedish television interview of Williamson, where the British-born Bishop declared that Nazi gas chambers didn't exist and Jewish deaths during World War II did not exceed 300,000. The Pope and several of his deputies have spent the past week reiterating the Vatican's clear, longstanding line on both the historical facts of the Holocaust and the warm papal sentiments toward and theological connection with the Jewish people. There is little doubt...
...Rome Papal Problems Pope Benedict XVI sparked outrage by reinstating an excommunicated bishop, Richard Williamson, who has denied that 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. As Israel's chief rabbinate cut ties with the Vatican, Benedict repudiated anti-Semitism and said the readmission of Williamson and three other bishops--a bid to repair a schism with an ultra-conservative wing of the church--did not mean the Holy See shared his views...
That concert also showed, though, that you can't just wish acrimony away. There was an immediate controversy when a prayer by gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson was left off the HBO broadcast. There's a whole talk-show industry devoted to feeding those "stale political arguments." And we've seen overblown predictions before that events would ennoble American culture--see, again, 9/11...
This was the day's catechism and call to arms. The Obamas began the morning with prayer at St. John's Episcopal Church, where Dallas pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes offered a warning as well as a blessing: "You cannot change what you will not confront," he said. "This is a moment of confrontation in this country ... The problems are mighty and the solutions are not simple, and everywhere you turn there will be a critic waiting to attack every decision that you make. But you are all fired up, sir, and you are ready to go. And this nation goes...