Word: vaticans
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...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 that the repair work, like that done with Muslims after the Regensburg speech, will eventually help put inter-faith dialogue back...
...schism with Rome is troubling in ecclesiastical terms. The Pope has shaken the foundations of his own Church, apparently without much consultation from those who run its day-to-day affairs (both in Rome and around the world). Indeed, Benedict made an end-run around the famously imposing Vatican bureaucracy, including the key offices of liturgy, doctrine and inter-faith relations that would have wanted to weigh in with their concerns under normal procedures. Several top Curia officials contacted by TIME this week declined comment, and there has been a notable dearth of vigorous defenses of the embattled Pope...
What comes next may be even more troubling. Since the lifting of the excommunication is just a first step in what would be a long process of reconciliation - including the thorny issue of the Lefebvrites' recognition of Vatican II (interfaith dialogue, religious freedom, et al.). It will ultimately fall to these same Vatican offices shut out from the original decision to work out the details. It may turn out that the Pope has introduced into the already difficult work of Church unity a problem that simply cannot be resolved...
...reportedly rekindled the holocaust-denial controversy when he was quoted as saying, "I know gas chambers existed at least to disinfect, I can't say if anybody was killed in them or not." (On Friday, Williamson posted a letter online apologizing to the Pope for his "imprudent phrases." The Vatican offered no offical response...
...stand back and you realize it isn't just a matter of bad timing," one Vatican insider said, referring to the coincidental Williamson interview. "You scratch the surface and you quickly see [the Lefebvrites'] attitudes are not quite right. You're making a most important gesture, and at what end? They're just not ready...