Mahony, rabbi make joint statement on denier

Cardinal Roger Mahony and two Jewish community leaders have signed an Op-Ed piece reacting to Pope Benedict's lifting of the excommunication of Holocaust denier Richard Williamson, a bishop whose group broke with the Catholic church over Vatican II reforms. The article runs jointly in The Tidings, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles newspaper, and the upcoming issue of the Jewish Journal. Excerpt:

Williamson's outrageous comments set off alarm bells among Jews and Catholics alike. Jews wondered whether the lifting of Williamson's excommunication suggested that anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial would be seen as acceptable positions for those within the Catholic Church. Both Jews and Catholics questioned why the Vatican apparently had not thoroughly investigated Williamson, an unrepentant Holocaust denier and open anti-Semite, prior to the lifting of his excommunication.

Subsequent statements by the Vatican and the pope reiterated the Catholic Church's deep respect and esteem for the Jewish people, while sharply rebuking Williamson and other Holocaust deniers....

In the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Williamson is hereby banned from entering any Catholic church, school or other facility, until he and his group comply fully and unequivocally with the Vatican's directives regarding the Holocaust. Later this year, I, Cardinal Mahony, will visit Israel and pay my respects to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust at the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem.

Holocaust deniers like Williamson will find no sympathetic ear or place of refuge in the Catholic Church, of which he is not --- and may never become --- a member.

Mahony is apparently the first Catholic leader to bar Williamson from archdiocese facilities. The co-authors are Rabbi Gary Greenebaum, U.S. Director of Interreligious Affairs of the American Jewish Committee, and Seth Brysk, the committee's Los Angeles executive director.