Where Is the Pope's Moral Leadership?

We have a problem here in the twenty-first century. We have no real leaders (although I have a lot of faith in Barack Obama).

Apparently even the Catholic pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI, the moral leader of the world's estimated 1.1 billion Catholics, cannot be expected to do the right thing. In a decree issued this Saturday, the Pope reversed the excommunication of British Bishop Richard Williamson and three other clerics who count themselves as members of the Society of Saint Pius X.

Bishop Williamson and his associates are notable for their denial that millions of Jews died in Nazi gas chambers. A Swedish TV interview with Richardson aired just a few days earlier confirmed that the 68-year-old Bishop Williamson stands by his views.

"I believe that the historical evidence is strongly against -- is hugely against -- 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler," he said.
"I believe there were no gas chambers," he added, and, "I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, but none of them by gas chambers."

"Shameful" was Rabbi David Rosen of the American Jewish Committee's reaction. By "welcoming an open holocaust denier into the Catholic Church without any recantation on his part, the Vatican has made a mockery of John Paul II's moving and impressive repudiation and condemnation of anti-Semitism," he said.

In a striking impression of typical DC double-speak, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi called Williamson's remarks "absolutely indefensible" but that the Vatican's decision was designed to normalize relations with the Society of Saint Pius X, and has nothing to do with the bishop's personal views.

The Pope is supposed to be highest moral authority of God on earth for all Catholic people. By tacitly endorsing a Holocaust denier, he doesn't simply risk alienating more liberal Catholics, Jews, and anyone with a sense of moral decency: anything short of a direct repudiation of bigots like Williamson can only be seen as a tacit encouragement for that bigotry. By reversing Williamson's excommunication, Pope Benedict XVI passes on an opportunity to step firmly into the 21st century: an era where those who live to oppress and eradicate others must finally be, themselves, eradicated.