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Pope feels 'solidarity' with Jews Pope feels 'solidarity' with Jews
(about 1 hour later)
The Pope has expressed "full and indisputable solidarity" with Jews, distancing himself from a bishop who denies the Nazis used gas chambers. Pope Benedict XVI has expressed "full and indisputable solidarity" with Jews, distancing himself from a bishop who denies the Nazis used gas chambers.
Briton Richard Williamson was among four bishops whose excommunications were lifted by the Pope last week.Briton Richard Williamson was among four bishops whose excommunications were lifted by the Pope last week.
Bishop Williamson said recently: "I believe there were no gas chambers".Bishop Williamson said recently: "I believe there were no gas chambers".
Pope Benedict XVI told a Vatican audience on Wednesday the Holocaust "should be a warning for all against forgetting, denial and reductionism". Jewish leaders, marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, reacted angrily to the rehabilitation of the bishop, saying it had harmed Catholic-Jewish dialogue.
Jewish leaders, who have been marking Holocaust remembrance day, reacted angrily to the Vatican's rehabilitation of Bishop Williamson, saying it had harmed Catholic-Jewish dialogue. The Pope told a Vatican audience on Wednesday the Holocaust "should be a warning for all against forgetting, denial and reductionism".
"While I renew with affection the expression of my full and unquestionable solidarity with our [Jewish] brothers, I hope the memory of the Shoah [Holocaust] will induce humanity to reflect on the unpredictable power of hate when it conquers the heart of man," he said.
But Nobel Peace Prize winner and death camp survivor Elie Wiesel said that the Pope had given credence to "the most vulgar aspect of anti-Semitism".
Decision 'disturbing'
"What does the Pope think we feel when he did that?" Mr Wiesel said to Reuters news agency.
"That a man who is a bishop and Holocaust denier - and today of course the most vulgar aspect of anti-Semitism is Holocaust denial - and for the Pope to go that far and do what he did, knowing what he knows, is disturbing."
Mr Wiesel agreed with other Jewish leaders who said the episode could be a setback in the fight against anti-Semitism.
"One thing is clear. This move by the Pope surely will not help us fight anti-Semitism. Quite the opposite," he said.
Pope Benedict brought the four bishops back into the Catholic fold to heal a schism with traditionalists.
He has asked them to recognise "the authority of the Pope and the Second Vatican Council".
The four were members of the Swiss-based "Lefebvrist" fraternity, which rejected the Second Vatican Council's teaching on religious freedom and pluralism.