Those wacky Society of St. Pius X bishops and priests don't seem to get it. One of the four bishops that had his excomminication remitted made recent comments denying that the Holocaust took place. This doesn't do much to build on Jewish-Catholic relations. The Society has silenced this bishop from making public comments on issues related to Jewish history. From what I read, he is likely to formally apologize for his comments. While all this is going on, there are reports that a prominent priest of the Society is making similar comments. He isn't denying that Jewish people were killed. He just thinks the numbers are overblown - maybe 500,000 rather than 5-6 million died.
I don't get it. In the fall of 1992, I spent a day at Dachau. I went through the museum. I saw the ovens that were used to "deal with the problem" of the Jews. I cannot explain the feeling that I had that day. It felt like my entire body was being pulled down by a dense fog. The only other time that I had a remotely similar feeling was at Pearl Harbor. I suppose that one might experience similar feelings at the "Ground Zero" locations in New York and Hiroshima.
I do worry about how Jewish leaders will react to the remitting of the excommunication of the four bishops of the Society, especially given that one of the bishops and a priest from the Society have made public statements denying the Holocaust. The Vatican certainly could have done a better job of vetting the four bishops prior to remitting their excommunication. Perhaps they went to the same vetting school that was attended by the McCain campaign.
Stay tuned, folks. This situation seems to be on a long and rocky road.
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