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Recently, Pope Benedict XVI revoked the excommunication of four bishops who are members of the Society of St. Pius X. He did so in an attempt to bring back some cohesion to the Church, to bring some lost sheep back into the fold.
The technical reason for excommunicating the four bishops in the first place was because they were elevated to bishop without papal authority. The actual reason was to put the Society of St. Pius X on notice. The Society never recognized the edicts of the Second Vatican Council, which was a fundamental change in the way the Church operated. The Society was too conservative to agree with Vatican II.
Despite being an architect of Vatican II, I think the pope failed to realize how much the Church -- not just the curia in Rome, but the worldwide councils of bishops, the local parish priests, and us lay parishioners -- really appreciate Vatican II. Recently, I went to Mass in German. I didn't understand a word. I could not fathom how for centuries the Church operated this way, with the Latin Mass. Yes, there is mystery in God, I agree. With the priest facing away from the congregation, with the Mass in Latin... this made the message totally inaccessible. It's no wonder Luther was so successful.
There was another tenet Vatican II. A statement was issued that the Jews were not responsible for the death of Jesus. There is a continuing attempt to reconcile with the Jewish community, not to mention reconciliation with other Christian communities. This tenet in particular was rejected by the Society of St. Pius X.
One of the schismatic bishops at the center of this controversy is Richard Williamson. Williamson denied the existence of Nazi gas chambers, placed the number of Jewish deaths at a mere fraction of what is documented, denied the entire existence of the Holocaust. I do not want to paint the whole Society of St. Pius X with a broad brush, but this anti-Semitic sentiment seems to fit in with the general beliefs of the order.
The pope claims the he was unaware of Williamson's claims. That may be true. But there was a reason why these four bishops were excommunicated in the first place!
The Roman Catholic Church is facing enough conservatism already. Opus Dei seems to be gaining subtle influence, for example. Every time the Anglican Communion makes a liberal decision -- the ordination of women, the acceptance of homosexual bishops -- the conservative Episcopalians flee to the Roman Church, where they are welcomed with open arms, sometimes to the extent that special dispensation is granted to married priests. Why bring even more conservatives who also happen to be anti-Semitic back into the mainstream?
Thankfully the world will not stand idly by. Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, several bishops in Germany -- with whom the pope was, until recently, a peer -- the conference of American bishops, even several bishops in Rome have all called this latest action irresponsible. In short, the Church has responded less than favorably to the pope's actions.
The pope has realized that he might have acted a bit hastily. He has now asked Williamson to retract his statements. This is remarkably naïve. Williamson's comments was not a firebrand tirade uttered by a priest freshly ordained out of seminary; rather, it was proclaimed in January 2009. Merely retracting the statement does not indicate a change of heart, and it seems evident that Williamson has cultivated this belief since he was ordained a bishop more than 20 years ago.
Now, this brings a rather interesting point to the table, something I haven't seen discussed in other media yet. This is clearly an ecclesiastical issue. The First Vatican Council decreed that the pope is infallible with regard to ecclesiastical issues. Yet the pope admits, at least obliquely, that he has made a mistake. He is asking Williamson to retract his statements before he revokes the excommunication. The pope is only now placing conditions on the Society of St. Pius X, even though a week ago he was willing to fully welcome the Society back into the fold.
Though many question how God could let the Holocaust happen, the existence of the Holocaust is in no doubt. There are too many graves, too many memories, too much written and photographed documentation, too much hurt for this to be merely a mass psychosis. The existence of the Holocaust is not one of God's mysteries. Yet, on ecclesiastical grounds, the pope wants to reunite the Society of St. Pius X with the main body of the Church, a society that continues to defy Vatican II, particularly when it comes to Catholic-Jewish relations.
Instead of healing the wounds within the Church trying to preserve the Church, instead of reconciling with schismatic orders and unite the Church's many factions, the pope's actions threatened to fracture the Church even more. The pope has made a mistake, a mistake about a matter of religious, ecclesiastical, theological importance. What does this mean? What does it mean for Papal infallibility? What does it mean for the long term health of the Roman Catholic Church? What does it mean that the pope is so far removed from the people?
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