On Holocaust-denying bishop, a voice of dissent
Amid the nearly wall-to-wall criticism of the pope's recent revocation of an excommunication order for a Holocaust-denying bishop, Rabbi Irwin Kula has produced a dissenting opinion that, in a nutshell, amounts to this: Get over it.
The Jews overreacted, Kula writes in the Huffington Post. They haven't labored to understand this through Catholic eyes. They don't understand what it must be like to run a spiritual community of more than a billion people. The bishop is irrelevant and lacking power anyway, a crotchety old uncle. And given that the Catholic Church has condemned Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism and showed great respect for Jews in recent decades, the rantings of an unknown bishop really shouldn't matter that much.
Kula writes:
Something is off kilter here. Is it possible that the leadership of Jewish defense agencies, people with the best of motivation who have historically done critical work in fighting anti-Semitism, have become so possessed by their roles as monitors of anti-Semitism, so haunted by unresolved fears, guilt, and even shame regarding the Holocaust, and perhaps so unconsciously driven by how these issues literally keep their institutions afloat, that they have become incapable of distinguishing between a bishop's ridiculous, loopy, discredited views about the Holocaust and a Church from the Pope down which has clearly and repeatedly recognized the evil done to Jews in the Holocaust and called for that evil to never be forgotten.
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It isn’t only the Jews who are alarmed over the Vatican’s new (though it must be said only partial) embrace of this right-wing sect, viz. the Society Saint Pius X (SSPX). The alarm is particularly great among more liberal Catholics in Europe. Several bishops in Germany and France have voiced their concern, including at least one Cardinal. The French and German press has voiced very sharp criticisms of the Vatican. In France, for example, some SSPX folks are active in the ultra-tight Front National, and the French dailies have reported extensively on the sharp right-wing turn of the Vatican. And Williamson, one of the SSPX “bishops”, denies the Holocaust and may be the most extreme anti-Semite in the leadership of this sect; but he is not the only anti-Semite. The German head of the group, and another SSPX leader in Italy, have gone out of their way to accuse all Jews of deicide just within the last few days.
My good friend, Irwin Kula, is right to argue that our response to Bishop Williamson should not be anger, but he is wrong to suggest that we should just let it go. . Holocaust denial is a red line for Jews. It is unacceptable and dangerous anyplace from anyone. But our response should not be anger, it should be an expectation that the Vatican fix the problem. For example, the Vatican should make a visit to 2 concentration camps and Yad Vashem a condition of his reinstatement. And the Vatican should pay for his trip.
JEWISH “guilt and shame” about the Holocaust??? Critics of Holocaust denial are driven by money to keep “their institutions afloat”?? Good grief! What is this Rabbi talking about? This is irrational blame the victim stuff spouted usually by the deniers or minimizers of the Holocaust.
I do agree that anger may not be the best reaction, and the expectation that the Vatican will fix its error is a good first response. That assumes that the Catholic Church is capable of managing its billion or so membership and organization.
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Mike Haftel
02/03/09 04:58 PM
Yes, I read the article written by Rabbi Irwin Kula.
I would like to remind Rabbi Irwin Kula - I stress his first name out of respect for his seven Rabbi ancestors - that some 70 to 75 years ago there were people (just like him I might add) that also though of Hitler as being cranky and irrelevant. Yes back then Pope Pious XII also backed that irrelevant and cranky scum of humanity: Hitler. Now we have a different scenario, but curiously enough, the Pope - why not say it - backs another example of humanity’s scum: Williamson.
How blind can Rabbi Irwin Kula – who I think has had it too good – be?