Vatican City – Pope Benedict XVI has told Jewish leaders that any denial of the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable, especially if a priest does it.
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Benedict just said during a meeting at the Vatican with about 60 American Jewish leaders that he is preparing to visit Israel.
The audience was scheduled after Benedict lifted the excommunication of a traditionalist bishop who denied the Holocaust, sparking outrage among Catholics and Jews alike.
Rabbi Arthur Schneier is leading the delegation. The rabbi is a Holocaust survivor and was host to the pope at his synagogue in New York in April.
Before todays meeting Schneier said he wants to thank Benedict for his commitment to strong Catholic-Jewish ties.
Schneier said the controversy was a temporary setback to relations between the two religions.
The Vatican says Benedict did not know about the views of Bishop Richard Williamson when he agreed to lift his excommunication and that of three other ultraconservative bishops last month.
The German-born Benedict issued his strongest condemnation yet of Holocaust denial during the meeting. He called the Holocaust a crime against humanity and affirmed the Catholic Church was “profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism.”
it took him all these week to come out with this.who cares.
And we beleive this load of manure from the head Apikorus because……… This is an insult to every Jew alive today and to the 6 million Kedoshim who are not with us today. This anti-semite priest should have been put in his place by the church the moment the garbage spewed forth from his vile mouth, not weeks later. If the church and the pope want to show their good will to Jews, then they need to make a concerted PUBLIC effort to put a halt to anti-semitism worldwide by members of the church, (i.e.) what is currently happening in Venezuela, where the over whemling majority of the population is Roman Catholic, I have not heard or seen one word from the Pope or the church on this matter. Why not? Why should we extend a hand of peace to these Jew Haters, they have not shown one bit of honest contrition for the centuries old murdering of Jews the name of the Apikorus Gadol, all under the auspices of the Pope and the holy roman church. WAKE UP YIDDEN THE CHURCH IS NOT OUR FRIEND. And Rabii Arthur Schneier SHAME ON YOU for participating and organizing this FARCE. 6 million Kedoshim in Shamiym are looking down upon you and asking WHY? I truly would not want to be you when you will be put face to face with them.
Who are these “leaders”? They don’t speak for me or for millions of Jews. The Church has committed heinous crimes against the Jewish people in close to the past 2,000 years, and the pope’s actions are just a contemporary manifestation of that.
your caption on the picture neglects to identify malcolm hoenlein
He must use the same committee to vet his appointees as President Osama does.
All “60 leaders” are a disgrace, especially schneier and hoenline. What a bunch of brown nosers. Hey Hoenline, try and get a real job, will ya.
where was the vatican during world war 2 when millions of our people were sent to the gas chambers??? they didn’t say a boo!! so why did they wake up in 2009 its much to late