Diving into non-sports waters …As a high-church Episcopalian, or Anglo-Catholic — and an orthodox one at that — I rather like this Roman Catholic pontiff. But to borrow a phrase from the film The Right Stuff, Benedict XVI has screwed the pooch.
To reinstate the excommunicated Bishop Richard Williamson, who has denied the existence of the Nazi gas chambers, is a stupendous blunder. To do it without previously getting him to recant makes one wonder if the pope has lost a few miles per hour off his fastball (there’s your sports reference).
Did the Vatican, which under Benedict and the previous pontiff had reached out to the Jewish people, really think Williamson’s reinstatement — and his comments — would go unnoticed? The pope’s decision has been hammered in Israel, as one would expect, but also in Germany, and it’s pressure from Benedict’s homeland that Wednesday apparently forced him to call for Williamson to recant.
Talk about a day late and a Deutsche Mark short.
Coming at it does under pressure, the pope’s request looks insincere. If it comes, a Williamson recantation under public pressure won’t be believed. And if Williamson refuses, he gets to play the martyr to, well … whatever cause he thinks he’s serving.
The Vatican claims Benedict didn’t know about Williamson’s views on the Holocaust when he lifted the excommunication, but Williamson repeated his views in an interview just last month. To use Casey Stengel’s favorite phrase — there’s your second sports reference — you could look it up.
Today’s New York Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/world/europe/05pope.html?hp
Williamson’s interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6C9BuXe2RM
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