| Another Point Of View Look Away and It Just Didn’t Happen |
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Last month Pope Benedict XVI revoked the excommunications of four schismatic bishops who had been
excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1988. The four are members of the Society of St. Pius X,
which was founded by French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970, as a protest against the modernizing reforms of
the Second Vatican Council, also called Vatican II. Archbishop Lefebvre made these four men bishops in
unsanctioned consecrations in Switzerland in 1988, and that action prompted Pope John Paul II to
excommunication all five. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre died in 1991.
On the surface it seems that the revocation action by the Pope was to ease tensions between the Vatican and its
ultra conservative fraction, and under normal circumstances it would strictly be a Vatican issue having little impact
on the outside world. However, one of the reinstated, Richard Williamson, a British-born cleric, has previously given
interviews that he denied the extent of the Holocaust. In 1989, during a speaking tour in Canada, he said Jews
were "the enemies of Christ" and had fabricated the Holocaust as part of a plot to secure the creation of the state
of Israel. Just two days before the revocation, a prerecorded interview with Williamson was released in which he
insisted that no more than 300,000 Jews died in Nazi concentration camps, "not one of them by gassing in a gas
chamber." Most credible historical accounts estimate that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. When the
Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI had lifted the excommunication of these four bishops, including this
English Holocaust-denier, there was an outcry from around the word especially from the Jewish community.
As an American solider I lived in Germany for eight years and I have seen the camp at Dachau and I have seen
for myself what evil man can do. I have watched the actual films of the liberation of the camps and I have seen for
myself what evil man can do. I have spoken to those who lived in Germany during that time and some who have
survived the camp, and I have heard for myself what evil man can do. To deny it had happened or to support those
who deny it is nothing less than supporting the evil that man can do.
In 1939 a shipload of German Jews was allowed to leave Germany to seek asylum in Cuba but they were refused
entry by Cuba and Canada and, to our shame, United States. The ship was forced to return to Europe where
United Kingdom, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands accepted the refugees. Of the original 939 Jewish
passengers, 227 died when the Nazis invaded France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. All that happened almost
seventy years ago—people believed if we just look away it didn’t happen. How could the Vatican look away from
what happened? By supporting Richard Williamson they have.
To the south of us, in the province of Darfur, in the country of Sudan, on the continent of Africa, man has once
again shown the depths of evil into which it can sink—genocide.
For five years since the genocide in Darfur began, a half million people have been slaughtered, and millions have
been forced from their homes and their country. The United Nations has issued edicts and a token force has been
sent but little has changed and the slaughter continues. The situation is complicated to say the least. First, there
are the warring rebels (principally the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), along with its fraction groups, and the
Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and it many groups. Second, there is the corrupt Sudan government, which, after the
peace treaty of 2005, developed governments in north and south Sudan. And third, there is the Sudan government
supported Janjaweed militia, which the government denies supporting, that United Nations has accused of
attacking and killing civilians.
To complicate the situation even further Chad, Sudan’s (Darfur) western neighbor has accused Sudan’s
Janjaweed militia of attacking 200,000 refugees that came to eastern Chad after fleeing violence in Darfur. Sudan
has accused Chad of backing Darfur's rebels as they carried out cross-border raids. And Sudan’s neighbor to the
south, the Central African Republic (CAR) has accused Sudan of backing the rebels within their country who have
seized towns in CAR.
Meanwhile millions of innocent civilians have been victimized by all sides. Estimates that nearly a half million
people are dead, two million have fled the country, and, according to a study by the Kenya-based Rift Valley
Institute, some 11,000 young boys and girls were seized (by Janjaweed) and taken across the internal border into
southern Sudan where they have been forced into slavery. The Sudanese government has armed the Arab militias
(Janjaweed) who terrorize the southern population solely to distract rebel forces from attacking government
targets. The area is in chaos and it is no coincidence or surprise that the waters off the coast of Sudan are the
center of operations for the resurgence of pirates; pirates who seize even super tankers and hold nations at
hostage.
There are times for diplomacy and times for definitive action. I am not inclined to sanction the use of might but
when such depravity exists we must use all the power we have to end it.
Some people would say that Darfar is not our problem, we have too many problems of our own to face, but I have
another point of view. If we just look away it didn’t happen, isn’t an epitaph that we can leave for our children or for
the people of Darfur. This isn’t a ship we can turn away from our shore. This is a ship for which we need to provide
a port of safety.
I’ll have Another Point Of View in two weeks.
excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1988. The four are members of the Society of St. Pius X,
which was founded by French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970, as a protest against the modernizing reforms of
the Second Vatican Council, also called Vatican II. Archbishop Lefebvre made these four men bishops in
unsanctioned consecrations in Switzerland in 1988, and that action prompted Pope John Paul II to
excommunication all five. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre died in 1991.
On the surface it seems that the revocation action by the Pope was to ease tensions between the Vatican and its
ultra conservative fraction, and under normal circumstances it would strictly be a Vatican issue having little impact
on the outside world. However, one of the reinstated, Richard Williamson, a British-born cleric, has previously given
interviews that he denied the extent of the Holocaust. In 1989, during a speaking tour in Canada, he said Jews
were "the enemies of Christ" and had fabricated the Holocaust as part of a plot to secure the creation of the state
of Israel. Just two days before the revocation, a prerecorded interview with Williamson was released in which he
insisted that no more than 300,000 Jews died in Nazi concentration camps, "not one of them by gassing in a gas
chamber." Most credible historical accounts estimate that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. When the
Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI had lifted the excommunication of these four bishops, including this
English Holocaust-denier, there was an outcry from around the word especially from the Jewish community.
As an American solider I lived in Germany for eight years and I have seen the camp at Dachau and I have seen
for myself what evil man can do. I have watched the actual films of the liberation of the camps and I have seen for
myself what evil man can do. I have spoken to those who lived in Germany during that time and some who have
survived the camp, and I have heard for myself what evil man can do. To deny it had happened or to support those
who deny it is nothing less than supporting the evil that man can do.
In 1939 a shipload of German Jews was allowed to leave Germany to seek asylum in Cuba but they were refused
entry by Cuba and Canada and, to our shame, United States. The ship was forced to return to Europe where
United Kingdom, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands accepted the refugees. Of the original 939 Jewish
passengers, 227 died when the Nazis invaded France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. All that happened almost
seventy years ago—people believed if we just look away it didn’t happen. How could the Vatican look away from
what happened? By supporting Richard Williamson they have.
To the south of us, in the province of Darfur, in the country of Sudan, on the continent of Africa, man has once
again shown the depths of evil into which it can sink—genocide.
For five years since the genocide in Darfur began, a half million people have been slaughtered, and millions have
been forced from their homes and their country. The United Nations has issued edicts and a token force has been
sent but little has changed and the slaughter continues. The situation is complicated to say the least. First, there
are the warring rebels (principally the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), along with its fraction groups, and the
Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and it many groups. Second, there is the corrupt Sudan government, which, after the
peace treaty of 2005, developed governments in north and south Sudan. And third, there is the Sudan government
supported Janjaweed militia, which the government denies supporting, that United Nations has accused of
attacking and killing civilians.
To complicate the situation even further Chad, Sudan’s (Darfur) western neighbor has accused Sudan’s
Janjaweed militia of attacking 200,000 refugees that came to eastern Chad after fleeing violence in Darfur. Sudan
has accused Chad of backing Darfur's rebels as they carried out cross-border raids. And Sudan’s neighbor to the
south, the Central African Republic (CAR) has accused Sudan of backing the rebels within their country who have
seized towns in CAR.
Meanwhile millions of innocent civilians have been victimized by all sides. Estimates that nearly a half million
people are dead, two million have fled the country, and, according to a study by the Kenya-based Rift Valley
Institute, some 11,000 young boys and girls were seized (by Janjaweed) and taken across the internal border into
southern Sudan where they have been forced into slavery. The Sudanese government has armed the Arab militias
(Janjaweed) who terrorize the southern population solely to distract rebel forces from attacking government
targets. The area is in chaos and it is no coincidence or surprise that the waters off the coast of Sudan are the
center of operations for the resurgence of pirates; pirates who seize even super tankers and hold nations at
hostage.
There are times for diplomacy and times for definitive action. I am not inclined to sanction the use of might but
when such depravity exists we must use all the power we have to end it.
Some people would say that Darfar is not our problem, we have too many problems of our own to face, but I have
another point of view. If we just look away it didn’t happen, isn’t an epitaph that we can leave for our children or for
the people of Darfur. This isn’t a ship we can turn away from our shore. This is a ship for which we need to provide
a port of safety.
I’ll have Another Point Of View in two weeks.