Bishop Williamson apologizes; Vatican spokesman: "not enough"

Bishop Richard Williamson released a public statement apologizing for his remarks on the Holocaust:

The Holy Father and my Superior, Bishop Bernard Fellay, have requested that I reconsider the remarks I made on Swedish television four months ago, because their consequences have been so heavy.

Observing these consequences I can truthfully say that I regret having made such remarks, and that if I had known beforehand the full harm and hurt to which they would give rise, especially to the Church, but also to survivors and relatives of victims of injustice under the Third Reich, I would not have made them.

On Swedish television I gave only the opinion (..."I believe"..."I believe"...) of a non-historian, an opinion formed 20 years ago on the basis of evidence then available, and rarely expressed in public since.

However, the events of recent weeks and the advice of senior members of the Society of St. Pius X have persuaded me of my responsibility for much distress caused. To all souls that took honest scandal from what I said, before God I apologize.

As the Holy Father has said, every act of injust violence against one man hurts all mankind.

+Richard Williamson,
London, 26 February, 2009

* * * Federico Lombardi says an apology from Bishop Richard Williamson is not enough:

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, said in a verbal statement today that the apology is lacking. He told journalists that the statement "does not seem to respect the conditions established in the Feb. 4 note from the [Vatican] Secretariat of State, which stated that [Bishop Williamson] must distance himself in an absolute, unequivocal and public way from his positions regarding the Shoah."

The spokesman also noted that the prelate's declaration was not a letter directed to the Holy Father or to the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which oversees the Church's efforts to heal the schism with the Society of St. Pius X.

Pope Benedict XVI meets with Jewish delegation from the United States, confirms intention to visit to Israel and the Holy Land

Benedict XVI's preparations for his trip to the Holy Land are under way, as he himself confirmed today in a meeting with a Jewish delegation from the United States (Zenit News, February 14, 2009):

According to sources from both Jerusalem and Rome, the Holy Father's first pilgrimage to Israel and the surrounding region will take place during the second week of May.

He confirmed his intention to make the visit, despite doubts cast on the plan by the conflict in Gaza and the scandal caused by Lefebvrite Bishop Richard Williamson.

Rabbi Arthur Schneier of New York told the Pontiff, "The promised land awaits your arrival."

And noting that his guests were scheduled to visit the Holy Land after their time in Italy, Benedict XVI said: "I too am preparing to visit Israel, a land which is holy for Christians as well as Jews, since the roots of our faith are to be found there.

"Indeed, the Church draws its sustenance from the root of that good olive tree, the people of Israel, onto which have been grafted the wild olive branches of the Gentiles. From the earliest days of Christianity, our identity and every aspect of our life and worship have been intimately bound up with the ancient religion of our fathers in faith."

Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Walter Kasper (centre L), pose during an audience with a delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations at the Vatican. Photo credit: Reuters

Click here for the full text of Pope Benedict XVI's address to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations -- in which the Holy Father recalled his meeting the Jewish community at Cologne (making history as the first Pope to visit a synagogue in Germany), in August 2005; his visit to the extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 2006, his meeting with Rabbi Schneier and congregation of the Park East Synagogue in New York during his 2008 visit to the United States.

Chiefly, Pope Benedict recalled the importance of recognizing the Shoah (alluding to the recent controversy involving SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson):

The two-thousand-year history of the relationship between Judaism and the Church has passed through many different phases, some of them painful to recall. Now that we are able to meet in a spirit of reconciliation, we must not allow past difficulties to hold us back from extending to one another the hand of friendship. Indeed, what family is there that has not been troubled by tensions of one kind or another? The Second Vatican Council’s Declaration "Nostra Aetate" marked a milestone in the journey towards reconciliation, and clearly outlined the principles that have governed the Church’s approach to Christian-Jewish relations ever since.

The Church is profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism and to continue to build good and lasting relations between our two communities. If there is one particular image which encapsulates this commitment, it is the moment when my beloved predecessor Pope John Paul II stood at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, pleading for God’s forgiveness after all the injustice that the Jewish people have had to suffer. I now make his prayer my own: "God of our fathers, you chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your Name to the Nations: we are deeply saddened by the behaviour of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant" (26 March 2000).

The hatred and contempt for men, women and children that was manifested in the Shoah was a crime against God and against humanity. This should be clear to everyone, especially to those standing in the tradition of the Holy Scriptures, according to which every human being is created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26-27). It is beyond question that any denial or minimization of this terrible crime is intolerable and altogether unacceptable. Recently, in a public audience, I reaffirmed that the Shoah must be "a warning for all against forgetfulness, denial or reductionism, because violence committed against one single human being is violence against all" (January 28, 2009).

This terrible chapter in our history must never be forgotten. Remembrance – it is rightly said – is "memoria futuri", a warning to us for the future, and a summons to strive for reconciliation. To remember is to do everything in our power to prevent any recurrence of such a catastrophe within the human family by building bridges of lasting friendship. It is my fervent prayer that the memory of this appalling crime will strengthen our determination to heal the wounds that for too long have sullied relations between Christians and Jews. It is my heartfelt desire that the friendship we now enjoy will grow ever stronger, so that the Church’s irrevocable commitment to respectful and harmonious relations with the people of the Covenant will bear fruit in abundance.

Michael Totten, reporting from the border of Gaza

“You have to remember,” Major Deutsch said, “that the damage isn't the number of physical casualties, it's the number of people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The kids in first grade in Sderot were born when rockets were being fired at Sderot. They have lived their entire lives having to think that when they leave the house, when they're walking down the street, when they're playing ball, that they have fifteen seconds to hide from an incoming rocket. And it's not only the kids, it's the parents. I have a friend who won't drive with two kids in the car. If the alert goes off he doesn't want to have to ask himself which of his kids he is going to save. He and his wife don't go out to weddings, bar mitzvahs, or things like that at night because they don't want to leave their kids with a babysitter.”

IDF officials say that in the years prior to last month’s war in Gaza, Hamas fired far more rockets at some times of the day than at other times. “Those times were between seven and eight in the morning,” Major Deutsch said, “and between six and seven at night. Between seven and eight in the morning is when everyone is leaving their home. They're on their way to work, and their kids are on their way to school. They are farthest away from protected spaces and most vulnerable. And in the evening Hamas wanted to be the opening item on the evening news. The school is a choke point. You have kids leaving from all the different places around the city, but they have to congregate around the gate to enter the school. And you'll see that they target areas near schools.”

* * * It may appear as though Israelis can’t be bothered about the well-being of civilians in Gaza, especially after they bombed that already tormented society for several weeks in a row. But I found that isn’t true.

A temporary field hospital was set up by the State of Israel at the Erez Crossing at the northern end of Gaza.

Palestinian civilians who needed medical attention were invited to come to Erez for treatment by Israeli doctors.

Humanitarian goods facilitated by the IDF also went through Erez into Gaza throughout the conflict, and the crossing was open to Palestinians with dual nationality who wanted out.

“We were asked by the government and the Ministry of Health to operate this regional medical clinic,” an Israeli doctor told me. “We've put everything here we can provide in a first-line clinic. It's not a hospital. We won't be able to operate here. But we need a humanitarian clinic to treat patients who need medical assistance.” [...]

The Israelis had to close the place down. Only a handful of patients ever came through, which didn’t surprise me. I didn’t see any Palestinian patients there when I visited. Hamas didn’t allow their wounded to be treated by Jews.

-- Excerpt from Michael Totten's report, February 8, 2009.

Criminals operating with impunity in Gaza

Unless you've been reading The Elder of Ziyon's roundups on Israeli news, chances are you might have missed some of these stories on Hamas' recent exploits:

• The Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry accused the Hamas-run de facto government’s security services of turning medical centers into virtual prisons. Ma'an News Agency. February 7, 2009.

• UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) informed the IDF on Friday it is suspending humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip after Hamas stole supplies it had transferred to the Palestinian territory. Jerusalem Post February 8, 2009.

• The IDF has transferred 1,100 blood units into the Gaza Strip Friday, via the Erez crossing (YNet News February 6, 2009):

  The blood was brought aboard the Lebanese aid ship which was detained by the Israel Navy off the Strip's coast Thursday. The units were transferred into Gaza by Magen David Adom blood Bank teams. ...

  [Head of the Blood Bank Prof. Ayelet Shenhar] could not say if the was a blood shortage in the Strip's hospitals during the Israeli offensive in Gaza, since "MDA was not contacted on the matter. As far as I know Jordan sent blood to Gaza and there was no need for the Israeli Blood Bank to do the same. The Palestinians refused to receive blood units from us.

  "Blood is a vital (medical) resource and the goal was to get it to the Gaza hospital," she added. "I'm happy that it worked out."

  Elder of Ziyon calls to mind a similar situation in January where an Israeli medical clinic that was set up in Gaza failed - Hamas refused to allow Gazans to be treated by the best medical teams in the world, because they were from Israel.

• The Palestinian Press Agency reports that Hamas militias are selling large quantities of baby formula from France that arrived in Gaza as humanitarian aid, which it then confiscated.

• The Palestinian Press Agency also reports that Hamas negotiators in Cairo went on a $25,000 shopping spree in a high-end mall after leaving Gaza for talks with Egypt.

• Ma'an lists the names of 181 people who were either killed, shot in the legs or had their legs broken by Hamas in Gaza in the past month by Hamas.

  Meanwhile, Interrogations of Hamas and Islamic Jihad men who were captured by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead reveal numerous abuses -- including the storing of weapons within school compounds and civilian houses; the confiscation of humanitarian aid and refusal to distribute to those aligned with Fatah, and the senior leadership of Hamas holed up in a bunker under Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

  "Palestinians who opposed Hamas's use of their land and homes as launch pads were shot in the legs."