Pope Benedict agrees with me!

VATICAN CITY – An apology from a bishop who denied the Holocaust wasn’t good enough, the Vatican said Friday, adding that he must repudiate his views if he wants to be a Roman Catholic clergyman.

The statement by Bishop Richard Williamson “doesn’t appear to respect the conditions” the Vatican set out for him, said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a spokesman for the pope.

While the pope did not focus on the apology itself, he could have.  Not only did Bishop Williamson issue a “pseudo-apology” but he did not recant his views about the Holocaust.  Good to see he is being held accountable.

Pondering Pastor

Funniest line in an apology this week

I just ran across this incident and “apology”.

The mayor of a small Southern California city says he will resign after being criticized for sharing an e-mail picture depicting the White House lawn planted with watermelons under the title “No Easter egg hunt this year.”

Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose issued a statement Thursday saying he is sorry and will step down as mayor at Monday’s City Council meeting.

Grose came under fire for sending the picture to what he called “a small group of friends.” One of the recipients, a local businesswoman and city volunteer, publicly scolded the mayor for his actions.

Grose says he accepts that the e-mail was in poor taste and has affected his ability to lead the city. Grose said he didn’t mean to offend anyone and claimed he was unaware of the racial stereotype linking black people with eating watermelons.

Located in Orange County, Los Alamitos is a 2 1/4-square-mile city of around 12,000 people.

OK, the man forwards a racist cartoon.  Evidently he thought it was funny if he forwarded it to “a small group of friends” (read that … “I didn’t expect my friends to freak out about this and make a big deal about it.  It’s not like I sent it around the world!”).

He claims that he didn’t mean to offend anyone (read … “that I sent this to”).

And then in the funniest line (or lie?) in an apology this week, he claimed he was unaware of the racial stereotype linking black people with eating watermelons!  If that’s true, then he has no business being a mayor, and the resignation is appropriate.  What, pray tell, would make such a cartoon funny if one was unaware of the stereotype and you were not racist?  Would the same cartoon have been passed along if instead of watermelons it had apples?  Give me a break!

Pondering Pastor

Bishop Richard Williamson Apology

Another day, another pseudo-apology.

A British bishop whose denial of the Holocaust embroiled Pope Benedict XVI in controversy has apologized for his remarks, a Catholic news agency said Thursday. Bishop Richard Williamson, with the conservative Society of St. Pius X, had faced worldwide criticism over a television interview in which he said no Jews were gassed during the Holocaust.

I’ve pieced together what the Zenit news agency reported about the actual words of the apology below.

“the Holy Father and my superior, Bishop Bernard Fellay, have requested that I reconsider the remarks I made on Swedish television four months ago, because their consequences have been so heavy.”

“Observing these consequences I can truthfully say that I regret having made such remarks, and that if I had known beforehand the full harm and hurt to which they would give rise, especially to the Church, but also to survivors and relatives of victims of injustice under the Third Reich, I would not have made them.”

“opinion [...] of a non-historian,”

“formed 20 years ago on the basis of evidence then available, and rarely expressed in public since.”

“the events of recent weeks and the advice of senior members of the Society of St. Pius X have persuaded me of my responsibility for much distress caused.”

“To all souls that took honest scandal from what I said, before God I apologize.”

“As the Holy Father has said, every act of unjust violence against one man hurts all mankind.”

Ah, even a Bishop has trouble with an apology.  He regrets making the remarks or regrets the impact that the remarks have had?  His “apology” seems to indicate the latter.  His apology reads as being “forced”.  What’s with the phrase “all souls that took honest scandal”?  That sounds to me a lot like he thinks that some have “taken dishonest scandal” at his words and raised much ado about nothing.

Then, in an interesting turn, the last line above has something important in it.  “Every act of unjust violence against one man (sic) hurts all mankind (sic).”  In the Lutheran understanding of the 8th Commandment (you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor), the Bishop’s words for which he is “apologizing” is an act of unjust violence.  If indeed that is true, and it therefore hurts “all mankind”, then the apology should be to all humanity, not just to those who “took honest scandal from what” he said.

Pondering Pastor