Wow! Have you seen the apology that Bishop Williamson has written to the Vatican? Fr Z has it here.
Bishop Williamson Apologizes
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Here is the source.
It is a carefully-constructed apology as far as it goes. However, he never mentions the actual comments that prompted the media storm, i.e. basically denying the holocaust. Ge real: “imprudent remarks of mine” does not even begin to cover this situation.No sane person would say the things Williamson said and expect to sway any but the likewise sanity-challenged. Out of charity, I will assume Williamson is NOT completely sane and forgive him. I pray and hope that our Jewish brothers and sisters can do likewise…Pray for the Holy Father.
An apology does not need to dredge up what was said – for to do so is to cause more scandal. We shall continue to pray for him…Blessings
I was always taught, and have taught my children, that an apology should be specific. Guess I’ve erred…
Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.-Martin Luther Reading the apology the bish regrets the statement because it has impeded the reconciliation. He probably can’t deny something he believes, and isn’t that a bit sad. But we are all sinners in this Church, so who are we to point fingers! Still a prayer or two would not hurt. So many prayers, so little time.
I agree with Jenny. His apology is not for the right reasons. He got chastised by his superiors so he's sorry. He goes not get it. He defied the memory of 6 million Jewish people for suffered horribly & were murdered. He insults the living by calling them liars & opportunists – profiting from the tragedy. It is not just being misinformed. That type of ignorance when pronounced by a bishop paved the way to Dacau & Auswitcz. He needs to ask forgiveness from those who he has wronged – the Jewish people & the souls of their departed. As penance he needs to pray for them – each one of the 6 million. I'll send him the names if he wants them. But he probably dismiss those as another fabrication. As a lay person, I am outraged by this. And I shall write everyone in authority to have him defrocked or laiacized. He has no business making my Lord God Jesus look like a monster because as a bishop, he's supposed to be an "alter Christi". If the lay people did harm to the Jews in past by Crusades & polgroms, now is time to do something good for them by crying out. We will not have someone like Williamson as a bishop.
Some of you need to refuse the armchair judgement so prevalent in the press these days.A couple of points:1. Bp. Williamson’s apology to the Cardinal (and the Holy Father) is sincere and beautifully written (albeit minimalistic). He shows himself most humble, and while referring to Jon. I,12, expresses gratitude for the lifting of the excommuncations.What does it say about you, if you’re not able forgive someone (although the apology wasn’t directed at yourselves) approaching the Successor of Peter with penitence? 2. The Church has never claimed the right to excercise though control in matters of interpretation or personal opinion. The Bishop is hence entitled to holding a theory as “the most plausible”, regardless of how “loony” many others deem it (often without looking into what he actually said, I might add).3. Catholic laypeople (even less anti-Catholic media) do not get to imprudently choose who should be adressed as Bishop, such decisions are up to Rome and the Holy Father guided by the Holy Spirit.4. The public opinion (through the media) in the US and the UK are in general distinctively pro-Jewish, even pro-sionistic at times. You need to keep it in mind while understanding the rest of the world. It’s not a matter of where you are right and everyone else are wrong.
It smacks of a ‘personal opinion’ apology. The critics of the church charge that it is ‘personal opinion’, however eroneous to deny the holocaust. But it is heresy to claim homosexual marriage is good. It is an interesting thought experiment, to ponder if Williamson had claimed homosexual marriage was good and if the SSPX were clamoring to ordain women, if they would have been received back into the church. I highly doubt it. That makes it seem as if the Vatican is OK with holocaust deniers and not OK with woman-ordainers. Which is worse, a wacko holocaust denier or a woman-ordainer? As for me personally, I think that the holocaust denier is less ready to join the church than the woman-ordainer or the gay marriage proponent. I think that Rome really does have its values jumbled if it thinks the death of 6 million people at the hands of a mad man is less important than the fact that the TAC has married bishops.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7867775.stm
How anyone can deny that 12 million Jews were put to death in Nazi gas chambers must be considered crazy. –jws