Rehabililtated? Not.

Many of the news stories and political comments about the lifting of the excommunications of the four bishops of the SSPX have said something along the lines of "Pope rehabilitates holocaust denier." It has been explained (and ignored) time and time again that this is not what has happened. Today, the Secretariat of State issued a statement making this even clearer.

Here is a link to the original text (Italian), and here is a link to an English translation at Rorate Caeli.

As they say:
Bishop Williamson, for an admission to episcopal functions in the Church, will also have to distance himself, in an absolutely unequivocal and public manner, from his positions regarding the Shoah
Listening to the 10pm news report from BBC Radio 4 on my way home this evening, I was glad to see that even the BBC now seems to get it.

I suppose the Holy Father will now have to appease the Islamic media who are saying that the figure of 6 million is "questioned by many European historians and intellectuals, chiefly French author Roger Garaudy" and that the statement represents a U-turn (it doesn't.)

Roger Garaudy is a French communist holocaust denier who converted to Islam and was convicted in a French court for "racial defamation." Subsequently he visited Teheran where he was praised by Ali Khamenei for exposing the Zionists' "Nazi-like behaviour."

Press outrage against Teheran anyone? ... Anyone?

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