Merkel criticizes Catholic Church over Holocaust denier

Feb 3, 2009, 14:33 GMT

Berlin - Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized the Catholic church on Tuesday, saying it had not spoken out clearly enough in rejection of Holocaust denial.

She was entering a controversy that has continued to grow this week in Germany, the homeland of Pope Benedict XVI, over the end of a punishment handed 21 years ago to an ultra-conservative, Richard Williamson, and other leaders of a break-away religious movement.

Talking to reporters, Merkel called on the pope to speak out bluntly on the issue of Williamson's denial that the Nazis killed 5 million to 6 million European Jews during the Second World War.

If a decision of the Vatican gave rise to the impression that it was permissible to deny the Holocaust, and raised fundamental questions about the relationship with Judaism, this could not be left to stand without further action, she said.

'It's a matter of affirming very clearly on the part of the pope and the Vatican that there must be no denial,' she said.

Last week, Benedict expressed his solidarity with Jews, who were outraged at the restoration of links with Williamson's movement.

Merkel, who is a Lutheran, said she did not normally comment on matters inside the church, but this was an issue of principle.

An affirmation against Holocaust denial had not been given clearly enough, she said.

German prosecutors are studying whether to charge British-born Williamson, who lives in Argentina, with Holocaust denial, which is a criminal offence in Germany and which is common among far rightists.

Germany, which continues to wrestle with the legacy of war crimes, was shocked when Williamson denied there were gas chambers at the Nazis' death camp in Auschwitz. He alleged the scale of deaths of Jews under the Nazis was no more than '200,000 to 300,000.'

He made the remarks weeks ago in Germany to a Swedish television interviewer. Williamson has since said the remarks were 'imprudent.'

Last week the pope ended the excommunication of four bishops who lead the Society of Saint Pius X, a worldwide movement with 600,000 members who seek a restoration of 19th-century Catholicism.

Germany has had an ambivalent relationship with the pope. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was angrily criticized by liberal Catholics and the media when he ran the Vatican's top theology office before being made pope.

German Jewish leaders have strongly condemned the pope. Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews, said last week she would not accept Benedict's assurance of his solidarity with Jews until Williamson had been disciplined by the church.

Catholic bishops in Germany this week urged the pope to speak out more clearly about Williamson. They attacked the Vatican bureaucracy, in particular Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, the Vatican official who oversaw the return of the SSPX to the church.

One German cardinal demanded 'a high-level apology' from the Vatican.

Cardinal Karl Lehmann, a former chairman of the German bishops' conference, told SWR public television in Germany the pope's decision to re-admit Williamson to the church had been 'a disaster for all Holocaust survivors.'

Lehmann, who is bishop of Mainz, called for the Vatican officials who managed the re-admission to be disciplined and for the pope to reiterate that Holocaust denial was not a minor sin.

He did not elaborate on who should issue the 'high-level apology,' but said in remarks recorded Monday that the church must singlemindedly continue its dialogue with Jews.

The archbishop of Hamburg, Werner Thissen, on Sunday accused Castrillon of 'sloppy' work on the case.

The archbishop of Munich, Reinhard Marx, speaking for bishops in Ratzinger's native state, Bavaria, called Tuesday for the church to condemn anti-Semitism more explicitly.

'How can one even imagine there would be a place in the Catholic church for anti-Semites?' he said in remarks issued by his office. He demanded the SSPX state clearly its stance on anti-Semitism.

Peter Seewald, a German author who interviewed Ratzinger at length and published a biography about him in 1996, said he believed the pope had been let down by his advisers not telling him in time of Williamson's political views.

'It is utterly inconceivable that he knew of the remarks. Otherwise he would never have ended the excommunication,' said Seewald in an interview with the website Focus Online.

Another of Germany's 27 chief bishops, Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrueck, said the Catholic Church could not tolerate a Holocaust denier in its midst, but he also defended the pope. He said Benedict had sought to make peace with SSPX, but had been badly advised.