Miscellanea Agnostica

It’s now the 21st century, and by now people are well-acquainted with the fact that our solar system is heliocentric (i.e. the sun, not the earth, is at its center). Of course, the Catholic Church, in the 16th and 17th centuries, attempted to prevent the world from understanding this. The Vatican ultimately lost its war on science, even if men like Galileo Galilei paid the price for having dared speak up for the heliocentric principle.

While today one might assume the Catholic Church would prefer to move on and fight new battles against rationality, one would be very, very wrong to think so. Oh no. The Catholic battle against the heliocentric model has by no means been ended. The Chicago Tribune reports on a Catholic organization which teaches that the heliocentric model is a wicked, vile conspiracy, cooked up and propagated solely to undermine the Catholic Church’s authority (WebCite cached article):

A small group of conservative Roman Catholics is pointing to a dozen biblical verses and the Church’s original teaching as proof that the Earth is the center of the universe, the view that prompted Galileo Galilei’s clash with the Church four centuries ago.

The relatively obscure movement has gained a following among a few Chicago-area Catholics who find comfort in knowing there are still staunch defenders of original Church doctrine.

This parish belongs to a Catholic organization called the Society of St Pius X (or SSPX). They’re a paranoid bunch:

Indeed, those promoting geocentrism argue that heliocentrism, or the centuries-old consensus among scientists that the Earth revolves around the sun, is nothing more than a conspiracy theory to squelch the church’s influence.

“Heliocentrism becomes ‘dangerous’ if it is being propped up as the true system when, in fact, it is a false system,” said Robert Sungenis, leader of a budding movement to get scientists to reconsider. “False information leads to false ideas, and false ideas lead to illicit and immoral actions — thus the state of the world today. … Prior to Galileo, the church was in full command of the world; and governments and academia were subservient to her.”

That rotten, stinking, horrible Galileo! He ruined everything!!! All by himself, he destroyed the “command of the world” which the Roman Catholic Church once enjoyed. How awful it must be for the poor, downtrodden Church not to run the show any more!

Boo fucking hoo hoo.

Some of their “proof” that the earth is the center of the universe is offered in the story:

There is proof in Scripture that the Earth is the center of the universe, Sungenis said. Among many verses, he cites Joshua 10:12-14 as definitive proof: “And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, while the nation took vengeance on its foe. … The sun halted in the middle of the sky; not for a whole day did it resume its swift course.”

While it once had been a schismatic group, four of its bishops have been readmitted to the Church (cached article), so one would assume its teachings to be considered authoritative by the wider Church. Therefore this can’t be taken as the word of just a few screwy “fringe” Catholics with strange and deviant ideas.

Note that one of the aforementioned four un-excommunicated bishops, Richard Williamson, is — like the rest of his organization, apparently — a paranoid thinker. He’s denied the Holocaust on the grounds that it’s an attempt to elevate each Jew in the world to the status of messiah, as I’ve blogged previously. Yeah, SSPX is a really nice crew.

Hat tip: Apathetic Agnostic Church.

Photo credit: Vicious Bits.

I’ve blogged before on Bishop Richard Williamson, who — along with the rest of his cohorts in the formerly schismatic Society of St Pius X — had reentered the fold of Roman Catholicism. It was about a year ago that the Vatican came under fire for having readmitted him (along with the rest of the SSPX), without realizing he was a Holocaust denier. Ultimately the Vatican chose to order him to take back his Holocaust denials. But, as Der Spiegel reports, even a year later, he has not yet done so (WebCite cached article):

Bishop Williamson Unrepentent in Holocaust Denial

Controversial Bishop Richard Williamson continues in his denial of the Holocaust, embarrassing both the Society of St. Pius to which he belongs and the Vatican. But the SSPX is becoming increasingly powerful despite the controversy and is attracting more and more supporters. …

The world has become a smaller place for the notorious bishop. Since he denied the existence of the Holocaust on television more than a year ago, causing serious problems for Pope Benedict XVI and almost triggering a revolt against Rome by the Catholic faithful, the ultra-conservative SSPX has kept him in virtual quarantine at its Wimbledon headquarters. Bishop Bernard Fellay, the superior general of the SSPX, likens Williamson to uranium: “It’s dangerous when you have it,” he says, but you can’t “simply leave it by the side of the road.”

Fellay knows what he is talking about. Williamson has no intention of revising his views on the gas chambers. When Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld sent him a book about the history of the Holocaust last year, he set it aside, unread. “The fact is that the 6 million people who were supposedly gassed represent a huge lie,” he wrote recently to his fellow members of the SSPX, noting that “a completely new world order was built” on this “fact.” The Jews, he added, “became ersatz saviors thanks to the concentration camps.”

Note carefully this last sentence, which reveals the theological source of Williamson’s denials: “The Jews became ersatz saviors thanks to the concentration camps.” (Emphasis mine) Obviously Williamson thinks that Jesus’ exclusive status as “savior” will be compromised by admitting the Holocaust occurred.

Folks, this is scary stuff. Really scary. However, the cat is now out of the bag … we can see, now, why there are Christians in the occidental world who so vehemently object to admitting the Holocaust occurred. (Of course, this does nothing to explain Holocaust denialism in the Islamic world … but that’s another matter entirely.)

One final question remains, which is why the Roman Catholic Church has yet to discipline Williamson for his disobedience (i.e. not taking back his Holocaust denials, after he was ordered to do so). That they have done nothing about this shows their lack of integrity as an organization, at best. If they wish to present themselves as a beacon of morality in the world, they’re going to have to do a better job of it than they have, and since we all know that “charity begins at home,” they need to start by forcing their own to behave morally.

Hat tip: Rogues Gallery blog at the New England Skeptical Society.

The Vatican is still smarting over its support for the Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson and is still highly sensitive to any criticism over the matter. A parody on Israeli TV has sparked outrage from the Holy See, because like little children, they cannot take what their own minions dish out (as reported by the AP):

The Vatican said Friday it has formally complained to the Israeli government about a private Israeli TV show that ridiculed Jesus and Mary in an “offensive act of intolerance.”

In Israel, the television station assured the Israeli foreign ministry that the segment would not be shown again and that its host, well-known Israeli comedian Lior Shlein, had apologized.

In the program, Shlein sarcastically denied Christian traditions — that Mary was a virgin and that Jesus walked on water — saying he was doing so as a “lesson” to Christians who deny the Holocaust.

It was a reference to the Vatican’s recent lifting of the excommunication of a bishop who denied 6 million Jews were killed during World War II. The rehabilitation sparked outrage among Jews.

Now that it is willingly harboring a known Holocaust denier, the Vatican is hardly in any position to whine about anyone else’s “intolerance.” Of course, the Pope could have demonstrated that he took the matter of Williamson’s Holocaust-denial seriously, by firing or re-excommunicating him … but to date he has refused.

Note to Benedict XVI: Turnabout is fair play. Deal with it … or not. The choice is yours.

The government of Argentina has looked into the raving lunatic Bishop Richard Williamson, and decided he no longer should be in their country, as CNN reports:

Bishop Richard Williamson, who last month denied the existence of the Holocaust in an interview with Swedish television, was ordered Thursday to leave Argentina within 10 days, the Ministry of Interior said.

“The bishop has repeatedly forged the true motive for his stay in the country, having declared that he is an employee of ‘La Tradicion’ Civil Society when, in reality, his true activity was as priest and seminary director of the Society of Saint Pius X in the neighborhood of Moreno,” Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo said in a written statement. …

“Williamson has had public notoriety following his anti-Semitic statements to Swedish media in which he questioned whether Jewish people were victims of the Holocaust,” Randazzo continued.

“For these reasons, along with the strong condemnation from the Argentine government of how statements like these harm Argentine society, the Jewish community, and all of humanity by trying to deny a historic truth, the national government has decided to demand that the Bishop leave the country or be expelled.”

Please note the initial reason given for Williamson’s expulsion: that he had come to Argentina under false pretenses. How nice of a Catholic bishop — someone whose morals, ethics and conduct should be above reproach — to have defrauded a country in his immigration papers. I’m not quite sure why a Catholic cleric, even an excommunicated one, would have needed to conceal his affiliation in a Latin American country, since the Roman Catholic Church has a massive presence in that part of the world, and lots of controversial clerics live there. It might have made more sense, had he done so in a country hostile to the Catholic church or to religious folks generally, such as China.

Given no apparent reason for his dishonesty, one must again wonder what it is that the Vatican sees in Williamson.

The situation is worse than we’d thought, about Bishop Richard Williamson. He might already sound like a Holocaust-denying kook, but as this New York Times Lede blog entry reports, his views are even loonier than that. Among them:

Read the Lede blog entry for details on all of these, and also to see Williamson denying the Holocaust on Swedish television.

I’m not sure what’s worse, that he’s as insane as he sounds, or that there is actually an organization that ever made this guy a bishop (as schismatic Archishop Lefebvre and the SSPX did).

By now you’ve probably heard about the Holocaust-denying erstwhile-renegade Catholic bishop who, a few weeks ago, was reinstated into Catholicism by the Vatican, along with the rest of the group known as the Society of St Pius X. The SSPX (as it has been acronymed) was founded in opposition to a number of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, and therefore was an ultra-conservative group. The reconciliation between the Vatican and the SSPX last month had been the culmination of many years of negotiation and discussion.

Bishop Richard Williamson, originally from the UK but living and working more recently in Argentina (not coincidentally, Latin America tends to be ultra-conservative in its Catholicism, thus the SSPX had been at home there) has denied the Holocaust on multiple occasions, and very publicly. This speaks to the heart of the rift between the SSPX and the Roman Catholic Church, because one of the canons of II Vatican to which the renegades had objected, had been the doctrinal denial of collective Jewish guilt for the crucifixion of Christ. While the SSPX did not make much of this particular aspect of the Vatican reforms, it did acquire something of a taint of anti-Semitism nonetheless — an accusation which the group has denied, but cannot seem to shake, especially since the Holocaust-denier Williamson ranked so highly in their organization.

In its effort to reconcile with the SSPX as a group, the Vatican appears not to have investigated the individual members of SSPX, though, since it was caught off-guard over Williamson’s Holocaust denials. After a couple weeks of trying to act as if there was no controversy, the Vatican finally ordered Williamson to recant his Holocaust denials, as the Boston Globe reports:

The Vatican, facing the biggest controversy to confront the papacy of Benedict XVI, yesterday called on a bishop who has denied the extent of the Holocaust to recant his views. …

The Vatican’s action yesterday came in the form of a statement from its secretary of state’s office. The statement said that Benedict was unaware of Williamson’s comments — some of which were made recently on Swedish television, but some of which date back much further — when he decided to lift the excommunication. The statement also said that in order for the Society of St. Pius X to be fully reconciled with the Vatican, it must accept the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which include the church’s renunciation of anti-Semitism.

Sounds good, but to date, Williamson has not done so, and is resisting having to do so, as Deutsche Welle reports:

A bishop recently rehabilitated by Pope Benedict XVI said he want to “examine the evidence” of the Holocaust before possibly recanting his statement that no Jews died in Nazi gas chambers, a German newsmagazine reported.

Even as Vatican officials were working to control the damage caused by Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to rehabilitate a Richard Williamson, a bishop who denied the Holocaust in an interview, with papal meetings and inter-faith dialogue, Williamson told Germany’s Der Spiegel news weekly he needed time to scrutinize data surrounding the Holocaust.

Note that this rhetoric is very typical of Holocaust-deniers. They frequently claim to have “examined the evidence” but they are simply not persuaded by it; if anyone gives them more evidence — they claim — they are certainly willing to change their views. Only they never do — no matter what evidence they’re given. Thus, they posture as though they are somehow “open-minded,” but never actually behave as though they are.

But Williamson was not directed by the Vatican to re-examine the evidence and reach a new conclusion; rather he was told explicitly and plainly to repudiate his Holocaust denials and reject anti-Semitism. He is not obeying the Pope. As a clergyman newly restored to the Church’s graces, it is a violation of his vows as a priest not to obey.

This in turn led SSPX to fire him from the seminary they’d set up, as the BBC reports:

An ultra-traditionalist British bishop who denies the Holocaust has been removed from his post as the head of a Roman Catholic seminary in Argentina. …

In a statement, the head of the Latin American chapter of the Society of St Pius X, which runs the seminary in La Reja, said Bishop Williamson had been relieved of his position as director.

My guess is that the SSPX, newly accorded with the Vatican, will dump Williamson altogether, unless he stops being a good little Holocaust denier, because right now the SSPX’s standing depends on his doing so.