All, All Is Forgiven
Under Vatican II the Catholic Church made huge alterations to its long-held and honoured traditions. The changes impacted on the manner in which Catholics held themselves as Catholics in the world of the day, permitting them to interact in society and with other religions in a manner formerly proscribed. Vatican II permitted Catholics to consider other Christians in a far more kindly light, even to work together, pray together for their common belief.The Church's strained relations with the Jewish community were altered, no longer condemning Jewry for their ancient role as "killers of Christ". With Vatican II parishioners were encouraged to think of themselves as "people of God", no less than their clergy, placing them in an equal station toward the Almighty. Priests now faced their audience, and spoke in the common language of communication, abandoning the Latin Mass. That same Mass that called for the conversation of Jews.
"The changes that took place in the Catholic Church prepared us for the very different society that we would live in the later part of the 20th Century", explained Thomas Rausch, a Jesuit priest who has gone on to work with ecumenical groups. "All of a sudden Vatican II said we should learn how to pray together, and work together." From witness to participant.
The Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, founded to protest the reforms of the Second Vatican Council consecrated four bishops in a clearly Papal-unsanctioned ceremony. Both the founder of the Society and the four bishops he consecrated were then excommunicated. Set adrift, they existed as a Vatican-separated body of the orthodox refusing to abandon traditions of the old Tridentine Mass.
Pope Benedict XVI, former Black Pope that he is, determined that it was past time to mend the schism in the Church. And to that purpose he has reinstated those four bishops. One of whom is a strident, unapologetic Holocaust denier, British Bishop Richard Williamson. Who has made numerous public pronouncements denying that the slaughter of six million European Jews ever took place during the Second World War.
"I believe" he has said, "there were no gas chambers... I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps but none of them by gas chambers. This spoken in an interview with Swedish SVT television. "There was not one Jew killed by the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies!"
What would it appear like to Pope Benedict were the Jewish establishment to conduct public interviews wherein leading spokespeople spoke of the errant nonsense of Catholic belief? That the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican, the Pope, carry on a long tradition of ferrying to their believers lies, lies, lies! Might he be affronted, outraged?
Of course, that smacks of childish immaturity. It would not happen. How, one wonders, will this pope balance the issue? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, take note.
Labels: Anti-Semitism, Political Realities, Religion
posted by Pieface @ Monday, January 26, 2009
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