Pope Benedict XVI Welcomes Holocaust Denier Bishop Richard Williamson and Three Other Bishops Back into the Fold

I am not a Catholic, but I do know that Pope Benedict XVI is ticking people off, one group at a time, with his radical views. It seems that Jewish officials in Israel and overseas are outraged that he decided to lift the excommunication of a bishop who denies that Jews were killed in Nazi gas chambers. The pope's decree, issued Saturday, brings back into the Catholic Church's fold Bishop Richard Williamson and three other bishops who belong to the Society of Saint Pius X.

The society was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebrve, who rebelled against the Vatican's modernizing reforms in the 1960s, and who consecrated the men in unsanctioned ceremonies. As a result, Pope John Paul II excommunicated the four in 1988.

The church's decision to lift the excommunication comes a few days after a Swedish television aired an interview with Williamson in which he claimed the Nazis did not use gas chambers.

"I believe that the historical evidence is strongly against -- is hugely against -- 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler," he said in the interview, which appeared on various Web sites since its broadcast. "I believe there were no gas chambers," he added. Source: NY Daily News

So, what the Pope is saying is that it is okay to welcome a known holocaust denier into his fold. Hmmm, then he has a problem with gays and lesbians? What gives? The Pope's actions sends a terrible message to Catholics worldwide. He's saying there is room at his table for bigotry and racial hatred.