The lifting of the excommunication that was earlier levied on the Holocaust denier Bishop Williamson was not a lack of communication but a mistake of the government of the Vatican. Even if the Pope did not know about the negation of Bishop Williamson and even if he is not anti-Semitic himself, everyone knows that the subject in question is anti-Semitic. In this case, the fundamental problem is the opposition to Vatican II, including the refusal of a new relationship to Judaism. A German pope should have considered that the central point is to have no ambiguity about the Holocaust.
Ratzinger has always lived in a church. He remained locked in the Vatican. So, he has not been able to realize the impact of such a decision in the world. There is no democratic element in this system. The Pope was elected by Conservatives, appoints Conservatives, and is wont to run a Conservative system. He does not want to admit that Vatican II caused a rupture such as the recognition of religious liberty, for example, that was opposed by all the popes before the Council.
In essence, Benedict XVI has an ambiguous position on the texts of the Council, because he is not comfortable with modernity and reform. Vatican II represents the paradigm of integration of reform and modernity in the Catholic Church. But Ratzinger has always been a Conservative. He has been skeptical about the Council right from the start. He has also returned to a very Conservative position.
This ongoing debate spurred by the lifting of the excommunication on the Holocaust denier Bishop Williamson is forgetting one simple thing: the Catholic Church is a religion while the Vatican is a government. Nowhere is the conflict between state and religion more pronounced than in the Catholic’s designated seat of God’s church on earth. The question now is: until when will the Church evade the fact that religion and politics are inextricably intertwined when faith becomes business. Moreover, any Vatican pope should face the truth that he will always be a political personality.
Via Yahoo! News
