Good for Pope Benedict

I'm not too happy with the direction in which Pope Benedict is leading the Roman Catholic Church and was terribly disheartened by last month's announcement of the restoration of a British Bishop who denies the Shoah (Holocaust), suggesting it was nothing more than a few hundred thousand deaths.

But the Pope has reversed himself and the following statement has been issued:

The viewpoints of Bishop Williamson on the Shoah [Holocaust] are absolutely unacceptable and firmly rejected by the Holy Father, as he himself ... reaffirmed his full and indisputable solidarity with our brother recipients of the First Covenant, and affirmed that the memory of that terrible genocide should induce "humanity to reflect on the unpredictable power of evil when it conquers the human heart," adding that the Shoah remains "for everyone a warning against forgetting, against negating or reductionism, because violence committed against even one human being is violence against all." Bishop Williamson, in order to be admitted to the Episcopal functions of the Church, must in an absolutely unequivocal and public way distance himself from his positions regarding the Shoah.

- Statement by the Vatican Secretariat of State, issued in the wake of international outrage following the lifting of the excommunication of British Bishop Richard Williamson, a holocaust denier. The statement also said that the Pope had not been aware of Williamson's views when he lifted excommunications on him and three other bishops last month.