Jewish leaders welcome Pope's condemnation of Holocaust denial

Pontiff attempts to end the row over his reinstatement of the Holocaust-denying bishop, Richard Williamson

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American Jewish leaders applauded Pope Benedict XVI today as he moved to defuse the row over his reinstatement of a Holocaust-denying bishop, telling them at the Vatican that denials of the Holocaust were “intolerable” and all the more offensive when they came from a man of the cloth.

Revelations: They spit in our faces

The Vatican has said that the Pope was unaware that Bishop Richard Williamson, whose excommunication was lifted together with that of three other ultra-conservative Lefebvrist bishops, had denied that millions of Jews were murdered in Nazi gas chambers.

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The Pope told the 60 Jewish leaders from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations that he was offering them “the hand of friendship”. He told them that it was “beyond question that any denial or minimisation of this terrible crime is intolerable ... The hatred and contempt for men, women and children that was manifested in the Shoah [Holocaust] was a crime against God and humanity. This should be clear to everyone, especially to those standing in the tradition of the Holy Scriptures, according to which every human being is created in the image and likeness of God.”

The Pope confirmed that he was still planning to visit Israel in May despite the deterioration in Catholic-Jewish relations over his decision to lift the excommunication of Bishop Williamson. He recalled John Paul II's gesture in praying at the Wailing Wall during his trip to the Holy Land in 2000, and his condemnation of “all the injustices to which the Jewish people has been subjected”. The Pope said that he in turn was visiting Israel because it was “the land of Abraham” and the root of both the Christian and Jewish faiths.

The Pope has instructed Bishop Williamson to recant his views but the bishop has yet to do so, undertaking only to re-examine the historical evidence and adding that this would take time. He said in an interview broadcast last month: “I believe there were no gas chambers,” insisting that up to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps but none of them by gas chambers. Bishop Williamson has since apologised for the anguish that he caused the Pope, but has been removed from his post as the head of a Roman Catholic seminary in Argentina.

In his strongest condemnation of Holocaust denial yet, the Pope said that the Catholic Church was “profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism”. Jewish leaders applauded his comments, and some said that his strong stand had ended the crisis over Bishop Williamson's rehabilitation.

At the end of last month the Pope lifted the excommunication of Williamson and three other bishops consecrated by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent in 1988. In 1970 Lefebvre founded the ultra-traditionalist Society of St Pius X, which is adamantly opposed to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

The Pope said that Vatican II, which termed the Jews as “our elder brothers” and absolved them from the charge of “deicide” for bringing about the Crucifixion, remained the cornerstone of Catholic-Jewish relations. He said that there had been some painful episodes in the 2,000-year history of relations between Christianity and Judaism. “But now we are in a position to meet one another in a spirit of reconciliation,” he said. “We cannot allow the difficulties of the past to impede us from offering each other the hand of friendship.”

Rabbi Arthur Schneier, whose synagogue in New York was visited by the Pope during his trip to the US last year, said that Christians and Jews would emerge from the Williamson affair more determined than ever to “work together to confront the challenges of our civilisation”. Rabbi Schneier said he hoped that the Pope would go on to build bridges in inter-faith dialogue.

Rabbi Schneier, who is head of the American Jewish Congress, said that his community had faced painful and difficult days because of Bishop Williamson's comments but thanked the Pope for his understanding of the pain and anguish suffered by Jews. He said that Jews faced “the new scourge of anti-Semitism, the desecration and burning of synagogues”.

The Pope said that the Holocaust must never be forgotten. “Remembrance, it is rightly said, is memoria futuri, a warning to us for the future, and a summons to strive for reconciliation. To remember is to do everything in our power to prevent any recurrence of such a catastrophe within the human family by building bridges of lasting friendship. It is my fervent prayer that the memory of this appalling crime will strengthen our determination to heal the wounds that for too long have sullied relations between Christians and Jews,” he said.

He also recalled his visit to Auschwitz, saying: “What words can adequately convey that profoundly moving experience? As I walked through the entrance to that place of horror, the scene of such untold suffering, I meditated on the countless number of prisoners, so many of them Jews, who had trodden that same path into captivity at Auschwitz and in all the other prison camps.”

Benedict's trip to Israel would be the second official visit by a Pope to the Jewish state after Pope John Paul II in 2000. Pope Paul VI went to Israel in 1964 but only for part of a day, and did not once utter the word Israel in public. Diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel were established only in 1993.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5716482.ece

Weak of heart go here

This page contains graphic pictures of those massacred by the Jews WARNING WARNING Warning

I bet you have not heard or seen any of this on CNN:

More details in this report.

That"s not all, you should also watch this:

Aljazeera English does not show the graphic part in the first video, but you can see them here at Aljazeera Arabic:

Last but not least, did they show you on CNN the shooting at Red Cross staff? (filmed by Canadian and Spanish activists accompanying the medics):

This clip is taken from today"s continuous heart breaking news from Gaza.

A grandfather from Gaza speaks in Hebrew to the terrorist defence minister of the Jewish State (message starts @ min 2:00):

WARNING - GRAPHIC

More war crimes is conducted by Israel every minute. The latest was massacring more than 40 civilians in a UN school in Gaza.

Action: Spread this video. If you know Hebrew, please provide English translation in your message.

Video also available here:
YouTube (until they block it): http://tinyurl.com/9hpv4q
DailyMotion: http://tinyurl.com/8c9aoh

These innocent civilians thought they are safe inside UN schools. A report from Aljazeera English yesterday:

This morning, a UN official reported to Aljazeera Arabic that two schools were targeted by Israeli air strikes, so expect to see more massacred children and women massacred and expect more schools to be hit as this is not the first time for Jewish State Terrorism to target refugee schools.

Following is another example of Jewish State Terrorism (unfortunately details is not available on Aljazeera English. Aljazeera Arabic has more details on this particular war crime):

Here is more detailed and shocking clip from Aljazeera Arabic about the same war crime mentioned above:
(Summery: The first man is crying all his family that includes his kids, wife, parents, cousins and all their kids. The second man cries his family too, eight kids out of ten and his own parents. The second woman cries her kids too, she managed to rescue half of them, the rest are under rubble)