“Ultra-traditionalist” is the phrase used in the Washington Post article.
I’m against the DH, the excessive use of relief pitchers, tv interviews of managers during a Major League game and sloppy uniform appearance. That probably makes me a traditionalist.
If I were to deny the Holocaust, I would not be an ultra-traditionalist;
I’d be an anti-semitic jackass.
***
Pope Voices Support for Jews, Rejects Holocaust Denial
By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 28, 2009; 9:37 AMPope Benedict’s decision to lift the excommunication of four ultra-traditionalist bishops, including one who has denied the Holocaust, has angered many Jews and Catholics who say the bishops represent repressive and anti-Semitic currents in Catholicism that they want the pope to now explicitly repudiate.
Church officials have been scrambling to downplay the decision announced over the weekend and portray it as a first step in ending the only formal schism in modern Catholicism. But Jewish leaders said the move threatens decades of interfaith dialogue and could harm plans for Benedict’s planned trip to the Holy Land later this year. The dispute adds to growing concerns among leaders of other faiths about Benedict’s view of interfaith cooperation.
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The bishops who were reinstated are members of the conservative Society of Saint Pius X and have all resisted the reforms of Vatican II, the worldwide 1960s meeting that opened new dialogue between Catholics and other faiths. They were excommunicated two decades ago.
The biggest furor since the decision to reinstate them, however, has focused on one of the bishops, British-born Richard Williamson. In recent weeks, he has denied that the Holocaust occurred, and in the past has written that women should not attend universities, empathized with the Unabomber’s views on modern technology and suggested that the U.S. government staged the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as an excuse to invade Afghanistan.“I believe that the historical evidence . . . is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed,” Williamson said on Swedish television this month. “I believe there were no gas chambers.”
***
Yesterday, the Society of Saint Pius X ordered Williamson not to speak on public or historical issues and apologized to Benedict for Williamson’s “ill-advised” statements.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Vatican’s ecumenical and Jewish outreach, also called Williamson’s comments “gibberish” and said his views on the Holocaust don’t reflect those of the church.
***
Benedict XVI should have used Pius XII’s information sources
which would have avoided this latest embarrassment.

Image: (ovens) via israelnewsagaency.com (Williamson) via angelqueen.org (piusxii) via pope.info; (Godfather) Paramount-Coppola & Puzo; (homburg) anothertimevintageapparel.com
