Pope Benedict XVI has done nothing wrong.

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I am sick of this attack on the Pope. The Pope reached out in mercy and did NOTHING WRONG.
 
No, the Pope did nothing wrong. In charity he lifted the excommunications. As tasteless, foolish, ignorant as it is, holocaust denial is not an excommunicable offense. And of course, the Jewish persecution complex is just rearing its ugly head, so I can’t say I’m surprised. The lifting of the excommunication is hardly a “rehabilitation”, and anyone with half-a-brain’s knowledge of the Catholic moral and legal system would know that.

I fully support the Pope in his decisions to lift the excommunication, and the further conditions before rehabilitation is even made possible. As for the Jewish community, the best they can do is accept the Pope’s and the SSPX’s pronouncements that Holocaust denial is unacceptable, stop whining, and get on with their lives. Sheesh.
 
I’m sick of the media and politicians using this event to try to demand the pope do this or that

I can’t stand any of them, and I doubt that most of them are Catholic, Christian, or even attend any church at all, or even believe in God
 
Parabol said:
The Vatican was unfortunately ineffeicient in explaining the Pope’s actions, is it true Pope Benedict did not know the reason for the excommunication of the bishop in question?
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Yes, he knew. Bishop Williamson was ordained a bishop specifically against the orders of John Paul II, therefore he was excommunicated along with the 3 other Bishops who were ordained with him.

BTW. Benedict had addressed the question re Catholic support of the Jews, the week before by warning against Holocaust revisionism and proclaiming his “full and indisputable solidarity” with Jews.
 
And Benedict XVI has, IMO, acted as Christ would have acted.

Surely he knows the evil and twisted thoughts of those who are leading and orchestrating this ‘witchhunt’. . .and he also knows that some of those who are being manipulated are not evil and twisted, but misguided.

Surely he could have boldly thundered forth his own innocence.

Instead, he put the focus right back where it should be–a demand for the recognition of truth from the person who actually made the statement in question.

By showing that he is in solidarity not with “only his own Catholics” but with all people, Catholic, Jewish, unchurched, etc., in the pursuit of truth and peace; by not insisting on this being about HIS hurt feelings at the anger and hate directed at him, Pope Benedict has shown the world that, as he was chosen to be vicar of Christ, he will strive to act always as Christ would act. . .in love of neighbor and above all, love of and service to God, without thought of personal ‘gain’.
 
The Holy Father is guilty of being uninformed when he made his decisions to lift the exocommunications of the SSPX bishops. Why was he uninformed? Evidently, according to Vatican sources, he failed to consult with those advisors who could have warned him of the potential problems and pitfalls of his decision. He certainly may do this if he chooses, but then it’s not fair to jump on those who reveal the problems that arise from his decision. But you’re right. The Pope did nothing that wasn’t within his rights as Pope and, as such, did nothing wrong. Bishop Williamson is the one who did something wrong by granting his interview at a sensitive time and spouting his ignorant comments about the Holocaust when he knew they were bound to be published.
 
cathguy said:
I am sick of this attack on the Pope. The Pope reached out in mercy and did NOTHING WRONG.
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Of course he did. He upset a lot of progressives some Jews, you know like the JDL, the German Chancellor, a couple of really liberal Bishops aand a few others here and there. It just won’t do:tsktsk: .

We all know that upsetting anyone at all is a bad bad thing to do, Quite possibly the worst thing in the whole wide world to do… Why, as the progressives love to say its uncharitable and :eek: mean spirited:bigyikes: .

There is really only one solution. The Holy Father needs to make an infallible statement ending the Roman Catholic Church and all of Her inherent prejudices once and for all, step down, , convert to liberal Judaism, move to a kibbutz in the West Bank and live out the rest of his life in penance.👍

The sad thing is there will be those who think this post is serious and agree with it, and not recognize it as sarcasm aimed at an unbelievable situation. A situation that has absolutely no newsworthiness, means absolutely nothing in the scheme of things and would never even been noticed had not some progressives thought they could get some anti traditional mileage out of it.

Because in reality that is all it is.
 
It is not “progressives” who created this problem. It is Bishop Williamson of the SSPX who created it.
 
The type of people this Pope upsets only confirms he is doing the right thing
 
God always cause good to come from evil…In some strange way this might be beneficial…I don’t know how, but God moves in mysterious ways
 
To suffer for Christ in any way is always beneficial, this is something the Pope certainly understands. I think he probably smiles every time he gets this kind of criticism.
 
Tsuwano said:
It is not “progressives” who created this problem. It is Bishop Williamson of the SSPX who created it.
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No, the progressives did not create it. They, the progressives, are using it though to further their own anti traditional agenda. What in the world does his opinion and that’s all it is, an opinion, have to do with the Holy Father and the lifting of the excommunications anyway? :confused:

The two are in no way related.
 
Michael_Neal said:
The type of people this Pope upsets only confirms he is doing the right thing
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Ah yes ! The howling of the wolves is such a sweet sound 🙂

My favorite so far is by the one who presided over the rock band/lazer lights/balloons sacrilege at Vienna.
 
CapIV said:
I believe that it is Israeli heads that are demanding that the Vatican open its private vault and disclose everything that Pope Pius XII ever wrote and demanding that Pope Benedict XVI delay Pius XII’s canonization yes?

That’s another thing that makes me mad. Canonizations don’t need to be justified to people inside the Church let alone outside the Church. No one can do anything these days without somebody getting their feelings hurt and the 24 hour news media blowing up a misunderstanding.

The news media is sick. The NYTimes article said the SSPX was formed because of its “rejection of a Vatican II document that absolved contemporary Jews from the death of Jesus”. Are they kidding me? How ridiculous is that?!

**It’s probably the lack of support/understanding or even willingness to TRY and understand from supposed “Catholics” that makes me the most upset./**QUOTE]

Same here!!! And, when they are members of the clergy, it just makes my blood boil.
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palmas85 said:
No, the progressives did not create it. They, the progressives, are using it though to further their own anti traditional agenda. What in the world does his opinion and that’s all it is, an opinion, have to do with the Holy Father and the lifting of the excommunications anyway? :confused:

The two are in no way related.
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I’m sure there are some groups who will try to use this issue to further one agenda or another, but I’m not really sure who is included in this group called “progressives” or what constitutes an “anti traditional agenda.” It all seems very vague to me. In one sense I agree with you that Bishop Williamson’s opinion regarding the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust has little to do with the lifting of his excommunication, but his opinion is and was intended to be inflammatory. As such, repercussions have to be dealt with. Because the publication of this inflammatory opinion and the lifting of the excommunications coincided, a false impression of the Church’s stance concerning the Holocaust has been given and must be cleared up. I believe the problem could have been avoided if the Holy Father had solicited the advice of those who best knew how passions could be inflamed by the issue and had taken steps to protect himself and the Vatican by discussing and explaining the issues with those concerned (namely Jewish representatives) before the excommunications were lifted. The two issues are, in fact, not related, but they have been joined because of circumstances.
 
Tsuwano said:
I’m sure there are some groups who will try to use this issue to further one agenda or another, but I’m not really sure who is included in this group called “progressives” or what constitutes an “anti traditional agenda.” It all seems very vague to me. In one sense I agree with you that Bishop Williamson’s opinion regarding the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust has little to do with the lifting of his excommunication, but his opinion is and was intended to be inflammatory. As such, repercussions have to be dealt with. Because the publication of this inflammatory opinion and the lifting of the excommunications coincided, a false impression of the Church’s stance concerning the Holocaust has been given and must be cleared up. I believe the problem could have been avoided if the Holy Father had solicited the advice of those who best knew how passions could be inflamed by the issue and had taken steps to protect himself and the Vatican by discussing and explaining the issues with those concerned (namely Jewish representatives) before the excommunications were lifted. The two issues are, in fact, not related, but they have been joined because of circumstances.
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The issue itself has nothing to do with the Holocaust, and everything to do with what caused this sect to break with the Church, which was the way that liturgical reforms and the opinions of liberal Catholics were fosted on the Church. As the Holy Father has said in many places, the way these were done
represented a radical break in the devotioncal life of the laity and with little consultation of them. The new liturgy was presented in such a way as to seem to be inventions, novelties
having little to do with the previous life of the Church. Many Catholics, especially older ones, simply stopped going to mass.
Others fled to the “sola scriptura” sects. This sect simply fossilized the liturgy and refused all reforms, but in the process also breaking with Rome. The pope is trying to do justice to the people who in good conscience refused to accept the new order.
Was it. after all, just to excommunicate these people while never excommunicating the likes of Hans Kueng and other theologicals who are. for all intents and purposes. liberal Protestants?
 
Tsuwano said:
I’m sure there are some groups who will try to use this issue to further one agenda or another, but I’m not really sure who is included in this group called “progressives” or what constitutes an “anti traditional agenda.” It all seems very vague to me. In one sense I agree with you that Bishop Williamson’s opinion regarding the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust has little to do with the lifting of his excommunication, but his opinion is and was intended to be inflammatory. As such, repercussions have to be dealt with. Because the publication of this inflammatory opinion and the lifting of the excommunications coincided, a false impression of the Church’s stance concerning the Holocaust has been given and must be cleared up. I believe the problem could have been avoided if the Holy Father had solicited the advice of those who best knew how passions could be inflamed by the issue and had taken steps to protect himself and the Vatican by discussing and explaining the issues with those concerned (namely Jewish representatives) before the excommunications were lifted. The two issues are, in fact, not related, but they have been joined because of circumstances.
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They are joined only because those who are using this to promote their agenda were looking for something, anything that they could use as a club against the SSPX and apparently the Holy Father himself.

The hatred progressives have against the SSPX is intense, unlike much that I have ever seen before except the hatred these same people feel for the Traditional Mass and traditional ideas in general. Since the Holy Father has made steps, small though they may be to loosen the restrictions on the Traditional mass and has incorporated some elements of it into his Masses these people are horrified.

Thus when this opportunity dropped into their lap they saw an immediate advantage. We can kill two birds with one stone. We can make the SSPX, and by extension all Traditional minded Catholics look bad, heck we can make them look like Nazis and, we can take down a Pope who is seemingly steering the Church towards a more orthodox position. All we have to do is keep up the pressure and not let this thing die. Keep the pot boiling so to speak.

Look at who is leading the outcry in this situation. Liberal Bishops, some of them German, many not, the Chancelor of Germany, a Lutheran, so I doubt she has much love for the Holy Father anyway, the JDL, various social action groups worldwide, ACTION, various religious orders, mostly female and other assorted folk, most of the liberal progressive variety.

The plain truth is most people couldn’t care less about this thing. It really is a complete non issue.
 
I find myself in the strange position of agreeing more with the Pope than I do with the rest of the world, including a great deal of the rest of the Catholic Church!
:ehh:
 
RobbyS said:
The issue itself has nothing to do with the Holocaust, and everything to do with what caused this sect to break with the Church, which was the way that liturgical reforms and the opinions of liberal Catholics were fosted on the Church.
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I thought that I saw an interview in which Bishop Williamson, denied the holocaust of 6 million Jews being killed? Isn’t this a crime punishable by imprisonment?
 
RobbyS said:
The issue itself has nothing to do with the Holocaust, and everything to do with what caused this sect to break with the Church, which was the way that liturgical reforms and the opinions of liberal Catholics were fosted on the Church. As the Holy Father has said in many places, the way these were done
represented a radical break in the devotioncal life of the laity and with little consultation of them. The new liturgy was presented in such a way as to seem to be inventions, novelties
having little to do with the previous life of the Church. Many Catholics, especially older ones, simply stopped going to mass.
Others fled to the “sola scriptura” sects. This sect simply fossilized the liturgy and refused all reforms, but in the process also breaking with Rome. The pope is trying to do justice to the people who in good conscience refused to accept the new order.
Was it. after all, just to excommunicate these people while never excommunicating the likes of Hans Kueng and other theologicals who are. for all intents and purposes. liberal Protestants?
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I feel confident that many of the concerns you write about will be dealt with in the ongoing discussions between the SSPX and the Vatican which are designed to regularize the position of the SSPX members and bring them back into the welcoming arms of Mother Church.
 
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