PR and the Pope

You’ve no doubt heard by now: Pope Benedict, for no good reason, welcomed an anti-Semitic bishop back into the church’s good graces. Only that’s not what happened, and the Vatican’s PR failures only made things worse.

From USA Today
By Philip F. Lawler

"We didn't control the communications," lamented Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Jesuit priest who heads the Vatican press office.

That was putting it mildly.

By now the whole world knows — or thinks it knows — the story behind Father Lombardi's lament. On Jan. 24, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications of four bishops from a traditionalist group known as the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). Within hours of that announcement it emerged that one of those prelates, Bishop Richard Williamson, had questioned the severity of the Holocaust during a recent television interview. Jewish leaders and editorial writers erupted in understandable outrage, and what began as an effort to heal a rift within the church became an ugly public dispute.

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Pope Reaching Out to Traditional Catholics

From the National Post (Canada)
By Charles Lewis

Pope Benedict's decision to bring back to the fold four bishops from a schismatic religious order was an attempt to reach out to a growing element of the Church that longs for a more traditional practice of Catholicism, especially in the heart of worship -- the Mass, writes Charles Lewis.

In the storm following the Pope's decision to lift the excommunication of four bishops -- triggered by the revelation that Richard Williamson, one of the bishops from the Society of St. Pius X, was a Holocaust denier and 9/11 conspiracy theorist -- a profound message about the future of Catholicism was obscured.

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Merkel, Yad Vashem Welcome Vatican Statement As Chancellor Faces Criticism

From Catholic World News

The chairman of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem, welcomed Wednesday’s Vatican statement calling upon Bishop Richard Williamson of the Society of St. Pius X to retract his statements on the Holocaust. “When the highest moral authority of the Church states that Holocaust denial is unacceptable, that is a vital message for the entire world,” said Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev.

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the statement as an “important and good signal,” she faced criticism for publicly calling upon Pope Benedict to speak out against Bishop Williamson. “Much of what is being imputed to the pope is almost malicious, and certainly not fair,” said Norbert Lammert, the speaker of the parliament. Archbishop Reinhard Marx of Munich also criticized the chancellor. “The pope took a clear position against any form of Holocaust denial,” he said. “To suggest that the pope would tolerate anti-Semitism is outrageous.”

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Pope's Call for Bishop to Retract Holocaust Claim Welcomed (Deutsche Welle)

We Support and Thank Pope Benedict XVI

"Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves."
~ Pope Benedict XVI

Sign the support letter here: www.soutienabenoitxvi.org

Requiem Mozart KV 626, "Dies Irae" Part 4
Conducted by Leonard Bernstein.
Choir of Bayerischen Rundfunks

Transalpine Redemptorists United With Rome

Last September I posted a beautiful video about the Transalpine Redemptorist monks and the remote, new monastery they are building on the island of Papa Stronsay, in the Orkneys off the northern coast of Scotland.

They are a zealous, fast growing community, drawing vocations from all over the world. However, at the time the video was made, they were part of the breakaway, traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

Pope Benedict XVI has made enormous strides in healing the thousand year old divisions between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. With his Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, facilitating widespread use of the traditional Latin Mass, he is also healing the modern fissures resulting from the Second Vatican Council. This "new springtime" in the life of the Church was wonderfully evident when the Transalpine Redemptorists recently petitioned Rome to be reunited with the Church, and when they were received back into full communion with the Successor of St. Peter.

We are richly blessed to have these good monks in communion with us. Deo Gratias and welcome home!

Yesterday, they posted the wonderful news on their community's blog:

1 July, 2008
Feast of the Precious Blood

My dear friends,

I am happy to inform you that last June 18th, before Cardinal Castrillon and the members of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei in Rome, I humbly petitioned the Holy See on my own behalf and on behalf of the monastery council for our priestly suspensions to be lifted.

On June 26th I received word that the Holy See had granted our petition. All canonical censures have been lifted.

Our community now truly rejoices in undisputed and peaceful posession of Communion with the Holy See because our priests are now in canonical good standing.

We are very grateful to our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI for issuing, last July, the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum which called us to come into undisputed and peaceful Communion with him.

Now we have that undisputed communion! It is a pearl of great price; a treasure hidden in the field; a sweetness that cannot be imagined by those who have not tasted it or who have not known it, now for many years. Its value cannot be fully expressed in earthly language and therefore we hope that all traditional priests who have not yet done so, will answer Pope Benedict's call to enjoy the grace of peaceful and undisputed communion with him. Believe us, the price to pay is nothing; even all the angry voices that have shouted against us and calumniated us are as nothing when weighed in the scales against undisputed communion with the Vicar of Christ; others have died for it; what are raucous voices?

We publicly thank all those souls who have prayed for us over the last months; some of you have truly stormed heaven for us. You have kept us afloat. We are deeply grateful. Especially we thank that priest who was unknown to us, until June 16th when he wrote in fraternal support. Where did he come from? Why us? But he told us of the number of Masses, Offices, prayers and sacrifices he had personally said for us; he had also enlisted the prayers of contemplatives and Third Order societies and had a great number of people fervently praying for us with an abundance of prayers. We were amazed! Thank you Father! Thank you also to that brave person who, so kindly wrote to us to say that if he said any more prayers for us he would be floating! What wonderful people! Thank you!

Looking to the future, the next stage will be to have our community canonically erected. So please, dear friends, keep praying for us, there will be many crosses to bear; but they will be yokes sweetened by the grace of these last days.

We assure you all of our very best wishes.
Your devoted servant,

Fr. Michael Mary, C.SS.R.
Vicar General