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'I Will Not Travel to Auschwitz' (Interview with SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson)
Der Spiegel ^ | February 9, 2009

Posted on 02/11/2009 9:36:09 AM PST by NYer

Bishop Richard Williamson's denial of the Holocaust has done serious damage to the Catholic Church. In an e-mail and fax exchange with SPIEGEL, the ultra-conservative bishop says that he is willing to "review the historical evidence."

SPIEGEL: The Vatican is demanding that you retract your denial of the Holocaust, and it is threatening to not allow you to resume your activities as a bishop. How will you react?

Williamson: Throughout my life, I have always sought the truth. That is why I converted to Catholicism and became a priest. And now I can only say something, the truth of which I am convinced. Because I realize that there are many honest and intelligent people who think differently, I must now review the historical evidence once again. I said the same thing in my interview with Swedish television: Historical evidence is at issue, not emotions. And if I find this evidence, I will correct myself. But that will take time.

SPIEGEL: How can an educated Catholic deny the Holocaust?

Williamson: I addressed the subject in the 1980s. I had read various writings at the time. I cited the Leuchter report (eds. note: a debunked theory produced in the 1980s claiming erroneously that the Nazi gas chambers were technically impractical) in the interview, and it seemed plausible to me. Now I am told that it has been scientifically refuted. I plan now to look into it.

SPIEGEL: You could travel to Auschwitz yourself.

Williamson: No, I will not travel to Auschwitz. I've ordered the book by Jean-Claude Pressac. It's called "Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers." A printout is now being sent to me, and I will read it and study it.

(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...


TOPICS: Catholic; History; Moral Issues
KEYWORDS: sspx; williamson
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Seminarians and nuns walking in a procession at the La Reja Catholic Seminary just outside of Buenos Aires. Bishop Richard Williamson was head of the seminary until being removed over the weekend.
1 posted on 02/11/2009 9:36:09 AM PST by NYer
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To: Salvation; narses; SMEDLEYBUTLER; redhead; Notwithstanding; nickcarraway; Romulus; ...
SPIEGEL: Your position on Judaism is consistently anti-Semitic.

Williamson: St. Paul put it this way: The Jews are beloved for the sake of Our Father, but our enemies for the sake of the gospel.

2 posted on 02/11/2009 9:36:39 AM PST by NYer ("Run from places of sin as from a plague." - St. John Climacus)
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To: NYer

Is Williamson competiting with the Church of England leadership (who want to accomodate Muzzies and Sharia Law) to see who can be the bigger idiots?


3 posted on 02/11/2009 9:39:59 AM PST by Vigilanteman (Are there any men left in Washington? Or, are there only cowards? Ahmad Shah Massoud)
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To: NYer
La Reja Catholic SSPX Seminary

Not nitpicking ... that's an important difference.

4 posted on 02/11/2009 9:40:20 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: NYer

Did Williamson teach Bill Clinton how to evade issues and compose weasel-worded statements, or did Clinton teach him?


5 posted on 02/11/2009 9:40:55 AM PST by steve-b (Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics.)
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To: ArrogantBustard

Yes, and one thing people are ignoring is the fact that until the SSPX becomes a regularized part of the Catholic Church again, there is NOTHING the Pope can do about Williamson or any other of them.


6 posted on 02/11/2009 9:41:42 AM PST by livius
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To: NYer
Williamson: St. Paul put it this way: The Jews are beloved for the sake of Our Father, but our enemies for the sake of the gospel.

Can anyone cite the scriptural references of Williamson.
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
7 posted on 02/11/2009 9:43:02 AM PST by Uri’el-2012 (Psalm 78:35 And they remembered that God was their ROCK, And the Most High God their Redeemer.)
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To: livius
This is the most ass-backwards thing I've seen here in weeks, and that's saying something.

Obviously, the issue before the Pope is whether or not such regularaization should proceed, and if so under what conditions and requirements.

8 posted on 02/11/2009 9:45:40 AM PST by steve-b (Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics.)
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To: NYer

Romans 11:1

I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

Romans 11:11

I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.

I don’t know what he’s referring to, but a search for similar phrases as his turned up nothing except his own saying of it.


9 posted on 02/11/2009 9:46:15 AM PST by chuck_the_tv_out
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To: theKid51

ping


10 posted on 02/11/2009 9:48:24 AM PST by bmwcyle (I have no President as of Jan 20th 2009. No Congress either.)
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To: steve-b

He has absolutely no leverage over them until they have returned to the Church.

Also, failure to “believe” in the Holocaust is obviously lunacy and a denial of reality that makes it clear that the person who holds that position is not rational.

But it’s not a heresy, and there are many irrational people in the Church, and as such they receive the pastoral care that is appropriate. In his case, it will probably be removal and seclusion, because of his public status.


11 posted on 02/11/2009 9:48:51 AM PST by livius
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To: NYer

B16 needs to muzzle this dude. Pull him to the Vatican and give him a nice cell to meditate on that book he’s getting. Let him be there for a VERY long time.


12 posted on 02/11/2009 9:55:59 AM PST by netmilsmom (Psalm 109:8 - Let his days be few; and let another take his office)
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To: chuck_the_tv_out

He is referencing Romans 11:28

28 As regards the gospel, they are enemies, but for your sake; but as regards those who are God’s choice, they are still well loved for the sake of their ancestors.


13 posted on 02/11/2009 9:56:27 AM PST by neb52 (Master of the Possimpible!)
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To: livius

>>and there are many irrational people in the Church<<

Some in our own parishes.
Some who voted for 0.
Some to lead them to believe this was okay.

And in my parish, the Ron Paul people who voted 0 in.


14 posted on 02/11/2009 9:58:04 AM PST by netmilsmom (Psalm 109:8 - Let his days be few; and let another take his office)
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To: NYer
I must now review the historical evidence once again. I said the same thing in my interview with Swedish television: Historical evidence is at issue, not emotions. And if I find this evidence, I will correct myself. But that will take time.

Uh.....what "historical evidence"?

Is it anything like the "evidence" you reviewed on the WTC attacks before coming to the conclusion that 9/11 was an inside job and the work of a Jewish conspiracy? What exactly was that "evidence" again?

If it is, don't bother. It will be an utter waste of time.

Your "historical evidence" is just a euphemism for "reading books". Just like the rest of us. That's not primary "historical evidence". It's second, third and sometimes fourth hand information, hearsay and conspiracy theories masquerading as fact. Williamson has simply done what is done here on FR every day. Embraced those works which fit his own prejudices and dismissed those which don't.

Somebody get this guy a clue.

15 posted on 02/11/2009 9:59:30 AM PST by marshmallow ("A country which kills its own children has no future"- Mother Teresa of Calcutta)
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To: NYer
There are people alive today who saw the horror — the truth of the evil of Auschwitz.

The priest is working hard to avoid the truth. He should be let go and find a more suitable profession. Maybe Baghdad Bob has an opening.

Denial of reality at that level is creepy.

16 posted on 02/11/2009 10:01:54 AM PST by GOPJ (What's caused 19 deaths, makes travel difficult, and won't melt til April? Global Warming.FR:Dentist)
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To: NYer
There are people alive today who saw the horror — the truth of the evil of Auschwitz.

The priest is working hard to avoid the truth. He should be let go and find a more suitable profession. Maybe Baghdad Bob has an opening.

Denial of reality at that level is creepy or evil - both...

17 posted on 02/11/2009 10:02:31 AM PST by GOPJ (What's caused 19 deaths, makes travel difficult, and won't melt til April? Global Warming.FR:Dentist)
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To: livius; ArrogantBustard; nickcarraway

According to the interview, Williamson is a convert. Does anyone know from which denomination he converted?


18 posted on 02/11/2009 10:03:37 AM PST by NYer ("Run from places of sin as from a plague." - St. John Climacus)
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To: NYer

I suggest we give the damn fool the Mr. T treatment: quick hypodermic in the thigh and on the plane he goes.


19 posted on 02/11/2009 10:03:50 AM PST by Petronski (For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden. -- Cdl. Stafford)
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To: steve-b
This is the most ass-backwards thing I've seen here in weeks, and that's saying something.

Obviously, the issue before the Pope is whether or not such regularaization should proceed, and if so under what conditions and requirements.

It is most illogical for you to champion belief in Churban 'Europa' while classifying so many other events of Jewish history as "mythology."

Once again atheists and enlightenment types avoid the unpleasant fact that the history and survival of the Jewish People is the greatest evidence for the existence of G-d in history by turning them into chr*st-figures in an anti-religious "passion play," suffering and dying at the hands of "religion" in order to bring about a glorious G-d-free secular age.

20 posted on 02/11/2009 10:07:31 AM PST by Zionist Conspirator ('Anokhi HaShem 'Eloqeykha; 'asher hotze'tikha me'Eretz Mitzrayim, mibeit `avadim.)
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