Many excuses why this decision was passed. The true version is hidden.Is this a antisemetic action??Does the pope really care what the jews think or feel??Is this the popes reply to the jews who defied his wish to make a saint of the past pope?? All the bishops excuses fall on deaf ears.

#1 Jason White in lovely Afula Prehaps this Pope is a Nazi in his soul?

Jesus,what is going on at the Vatican these Days?

Choirboys..the way they say Amen

And the decision to break ties with the Vatican is essential.

The Pope clearly blew it by reinstating this holocaust denier. It proves what everybody already knows, that he and his cabal are desperately out of touch with the real modern world. The question now is whether he will have the guts to admit his mistake and reverse his decision? Don't hold your breath for that to happen anytime soon.

I don’t believe the Pope would need to consult with anybody to know that reinstating a holocaust denier would upset Jewish-Righteous People-Catholic relations. Before reinstating the moron, the Pope must have known he was making a very great statement: the new vox populi of the Vatican!

for being a decent German.

Some say Pope Benedict did this to shore up church unity with more traditionalist Catholics. Clearly he has to know, as a German pope, as a volunteer in the Hitler Youth -- though it was compulsory -- this would raise eyebrows if not hurt feelings and anger. But I say to the Pope: "If it is in your heart to reinstate a Holocaust denier, STAND FIRM. Do not be intimidated." With all due respect to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the pope making clear his rejection of Holocaust denial will not reduce the pain or the harm in this affair. The damage has been done. Clearly this Pontiff is sympathetic even to those who deny the Holocaust so long as it shores up church unity.

..he "vas only following orders." "Jarwohl, Herr General!!" Humming "Edelweiss" he dances off stage in his lovely white dress. Does the Labor day rule about white apply to Popes?

Andy, #6 Are you saying he put the "Rat" in Ratzinger? Man, what a "Zinger" that is. Makes one want to "goosestep" around the Country within a country.

Dear Angela Merkel, thank you for standing up for truth. May you be blessed . Amen!

or a re-builder of the passive acceptance of millitant anti-Semitism of his predecessor during WWII.

That says it all!

Maybe if he was older he could have joined the s.s. or gestapo. I guess old nazis never change their hate and being a poop does not matter. Let us keep this old nazi out of Israel in the spring and make sure peres does not have a love affair with him. peres so misses his arafat.

She is a good friend of Israel.

Jason#18 In beautiful sun drenched Afula. se here, my good man. Just because he wore the Hitler Jugend uniform(including the nifty dagger) and practised for the part of Carl, in the local little theater production of "Sound of Music", and kiched the crap out of Jews and daubed some clever, but pungent sayings on jewish property, does not make him a Nazi. Granted it is a very strong indicator, BUT, nor proof positive. Like having a cellar full of Jewish artworks and treasures. What? He does. What? Why, that old rascal. So what you are saying is a National Socialist never changes his spots and infrequently his underwear. OK. I buy that. Now Peres. The Socialist International. Is this a Stalinist or Trotsky thing kind of dance?

The Holocaust should be about facts and not belief. It's easy to condemn someone with words for speaking their opinion. But how about presenting the facts, such as a master list with 6 million Jewish names on it. To this date, there is no such list. I have read various books on the Holocaust with different numbers of Jewish victims. We Jews need to know the truth about the Holocaust.

Unfortunately what you said is a sin for all those benefited and use the holocaust for their own gains. Everyone should be able to question what happened and its scale. If a racist makes a film about lies on Muslims, you see those morons appeared on talkbacks got outrage and cry for the freedom of speech. Yet they supporter the crimes and holocaust against the Palestinian people and one example is killing 700 kids and women in less than 3 weeks.

about? A "master list" would require access to population registrars and records that don't exist anymore - or did you somehow neglect to notice WWII, in all its destructiveness? The death toll of the Holocaust was measured by several studies comparing population census information before and after the war, including taking displaced populace numbers into consideration. It includes the extensive German records on population displacement, executions, and transfers to camps from which few, if any, emerged alive. You imply that the facts don't exist. That the post-WWII era didn't have scientific study and factual analysis. You imply a conspiracy, Rich, and that just makes you sound stupid. But hey, you want a name list? Visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel, the one organization in the world that has as its main goal to collect as much authentic information as possible on the *individual* victims of Holocaust. So far, Yad Vashem has over 3.3 million names, 74 million pages of documentation, 350,000 photographs, and audio, video, and written testimonies of survivors. It was made for people like you. People who prefer conspiracies to facts. So visit, and read, and watch, and do try to keep your meal down, cause the sights aren't all pretty...

rich, that is very rich indeed! there are plenty of archives in jerusalem, in yad vashem and in the library of congress as well as the german chancellory that have accumulated major lists of names of between 5 and 6 million jewish men, women and children that have expired in the ovens, in the crematoria, in severe labour camps and via hunger, disease and overwork or simply murdered and thrown into human grave pits, covered and burned. you have read a few books about the holocaust? and you claim to be a jew? i doubt it. it is jews that know what happened and often those that doubt the numbers are not of jewish background with an exception of a very few, very few revisionist historians of jewish descent who have neither conducted, nor investigated fully the true relevant history of the numbers involved and have a different agenda on their minds altogether than following the truth. we know them all and we have heard them speak, which is shameful. the lists, numbers are complete and can be found in vast volumes in the congressional library and yad vashem. they have been researched via doccuments left by nazzis from every camp and death center. thank god the nazis are a very meticulous people. even in death, they seemed to have recorded all death with names, ages, sex and "reason for death". these archives have been found and have existed since the trials at nuremberg. verbal accounts during the trials together with archival letters, logs and information written by the nazzis gave the trials and pretty good indication of the amount of deaths in both the concentration camps, in death marches, in crematorias and gas chambers and in severe labour camps all over europe. there are also stats regarding the deaths number of jewish civilians that were gunned down, thrown into pits and burned and covered by the polish government as well as by all european countries who were under nazi occupation and rule. as a jew, all you have to do, indeed, is question why you are questioning this number of deaths? if you do not wish to take this as a fact, i suggest you do more research than the "i read a few books about the holocaust" so that you do not sound pathetic and unread, so that you do not sound illiterate to the bone, so that you do not sound a total imbecil. you are more than welcome to travel to israel and see not only the numbers, but also photos of many many of those that perished during the reich. i will most gladly offer you a thorough tour of all the names and show you a list. for you to question what has been researched thoroughly by, not only phenomenal historians of both jewish and christian ancestry, boggles the mind. what astounds me as a christian protestant professor and as a director of research into the holocaust at a major ivy league university in the usa, is your limited knowledge as a jew into your own history and the facts associated with it. i can understand one saying they want to learn more about the subject matter, but i fail to understand one that fails to comprehend the enormity of the numbers and doubt them as fact. yes, we jews need to know about the holocaust, as you say. however, the jews do know about the holocaust. the one that doesn't is you.

Bishop Williamson, in his interview, invokes a self-professed "engineer" -- who lacks a degree in engineering -- by the name of Fred Leuchter. Leuchter authored a report entitled "The Leuchter Report: ...on the Alleged Execution Chambers at Auschwitz..." 'Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, along with a Massachusetts suvivors group, brought an action against Leuchter for practicing engineering without a license. The trial became a media event and Leuchter was forced to sign a consent decree barring him from using the title "engineer." ' If you are in search of the facts and the truth, and are not a kook like Bishop Williamson who believes crackpot conspiracy theorists like Leuchter, I might suggest you begin with a couple of resources: 1) Deborah Dipstadt's blog on this subject: http://lipstadt.blogspot.com/2009/01/williamson-rebuttal-and-resource-sheet.html 2) "Denying History" by Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman http://www.amazon.com/Denying-History-Holocaust-Never-Happened/dp/0520216121 If you are really interested in facts and are not a follower of kooks and crackpot theorists, you will research these two avenues. You wrote "we Jews need to know..." etc. How do we know you are a Jew and not a neo-Nazi or some conspiracy-minded Jew-hater?

Rich#21 in molto chilly Toronto, Canada My heartiest congratulations to you Rich. You are our non Arab winner! Come on down. I have been looking for a chance to utilize the word "Putzitude". The act of being a Putz with an attitude. As opposed to Putzhood. Or even Putzness. Well pardner, with your entre into the Shoah fray and your utterly dumbassed suggestion that there is a computer database somewhere created by the Third Reich (some fifty years before the advent of computers) with the exact numbers of persons murdered by the German (and their merry enablers) you get the lead lined condom; Grand prize for PUTZITUDE!! Come on boys and girls. Put your hands together for Rich, in Toronto. YEA!!!!!!!! You claim in your post to be one of "we Jews". Can I get a refund?

....you may want to think about the fact that Germany is one of Iran's most important trading partners. Without economical and technical support from Germany it would be much harder for Iran to develop the bomb. I am not the biggest fan of the Pope, however, he did not rehabilitate the Shoah-denying bishop but only withdrew his excommunication. The bishop is still suspended. He is not allowed to act as a bishop in the church's name, to read the mass or to teach. I don't see the connection between religious beliefs and political or ideological opinions - as twisted as they may be. A Shoah-denier has no place in the catholic church, however, he is surely entitled to believe in the catholic faith and to listen to the mass. This is what the Pope allowed him. Nothing more. And please - spare me that utter nonsense about the Pope's membership in Hilter's Youth. He's been 14 years old back then in 1941. There is a lot to criticise about him, however, he certainly is no Nazi. Let's keep things within proportions and please, leave Hitler and WW II out...... It wish Merkel would take a tough stance on Iran's nuclear ambitions and the other real dangers that arise for the Jewish people. The Pope is certainly not the Jew's main problem.

As usual, I find that I am impressed by the mix of candor and courage displayed by the German PM when addressing questions of Holocaust denial. She is an impressive leader.