From the AP:
The Vatican said Friday that the apology issued by an ultraconservative bishop who denied the Holocaust was not good enough to admit him into the Catholic Church as a clergyman.
Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said Bishop Richard Williamson's statement "doesn't appear to respect the conditions" the Vatican set out for him.
....
On Friday, Germany's justice minister, Brigitte Zypries, said Germany could issue a European-wide arrest warrant on hate crimes charges for Williamson, because the Swedish TV interview was conducted in Germany.
State prosecutors in Regensburg, Germany, have already opened a preliminary investigation into whether Williamson broke German laws against Holocaust denial.
Oh my! Bishop Williamson is in further trouble, having been expelled from Argentina. Didn't anyone at the Vatican see this coming?
Yet another example of a stunning lack of foresight.
ReplyDeleteYes, Catherine. I believe the powers didn't think this one through.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see where this will go: can one remain a Bishop once one has been arrested for Holocaust denial?
ReplyDeleteUm, anyone notice the irony that he is probably the only Nazi sympathizer, er holocost denier, to ever be expelled from Argentina?
ReplyDeleteDP, is it once a bishop, always a bishop in the RC canons? Of course, you don't have to be a bishop of anything, and you can still be excommunicated.
ReplyDeleteHillbilly, I thought of the numbers of Nazis and Nazi-sympathizers who were given safe haven in Argentina. Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele, and Klaus Barbie come rather quickly to mind.
Perhaps it's a new day there now, although I found this story from 2003 in the NYT which sheds light on more recent, although not up to date, policies.
You mean, the Pope is fallible?
ReplyDeleteCounterlight, could it be?
ReplyDelete