It's not just Jews who are offended by this. This is outrageous and is the best indication yet of Benedict's desire to roll back the 20th Century. Next he'll be making Torquemada a saint.
Sorry to those non-Catholics for posting this, but I just wanted to bring all of us survivors of Catholicism up to date on what our current fascist Pope is up to. And believe me, the "Lefebvrian movement" ,based in France, is among the most far right. These people really are warmed-over Nazis. Exhibit A: "Bishop" Williamson (see article.)
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1873855,00.html?xid=rss-topstories-cnnpartnerThat this Pope can be so morally indifferent to what these people are - and at the same time oppose basic human rights for gay people - shows how evil wears a white skull cap. I really hope that this guy is the last pope, as some have prophesied.
By Forgiving Traditionalists, the Pope Offends JewsBy Jeff Israely Saturday, Jan. 24, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI has reinstated four bishops from an archconservative breakaway wing of the Roman Catholic Church, a decision that is bound to stir controversy within his own flock. But Saturday's announcement that the Vatican will undo the 20-year schism between the Vatican and the so-called Lefebvrian movement is all the more sensitive because
it comes only days after the broadcast of an interview in which British-born Bishop Richard Williamson, one of those Benedict is bringing back into the fold, denies that the Nazi Holocaust ever happened.
"I believe there were no gas chambers," Williamson said. The bishop, who has been accused of anti-Semitism in the past, declared that the historical evidence was "hugely against" the accepted belief that close to 6 million Jews were systematically exterminated as part of Adolf Hitler's Final Solution. Williamson claims that no more than 300,000 Jews died during World War II.
The Vatican made no mention of those remarks in the communiqué that announced the papal decree that revokes the 1988 excommunication of Williamson and his three fellow bishops. Papal spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the decree in no way means the Pope, a German, shares Williamson's views on the Holocaust.
Earlier this week, Jewish leaders warned that relations between the Holy See and Judaism would deteriorate if the controversial prelates were brought back into mainstream Catholicism.
The four bishops belong to a movement founded by late French traditionalist Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Followers oppose dialogue with other religions and say Jews should convert. Rome's chief rabbi said Williamson's rehabilitation in particular would open "a deep wound" in Jewish-Vatican relations, which had already been strained by recent controversy over the effort to make Pope Pius XII a saint despite some historians' contention that he did little to save Jews during the Holocaust. The French Jewish organization CRIF called Williamson "a despicable liar whose only goal is to revive the centuries-old hatred against Jews."
Officially dated Jan. 21 (by coincidence the same day the interview aired), the decree states that the Pope "was inspired in this decision by the wish that complete reconciliation and full communion is reached as soon as possible." A senior Vatican official told TIME that
the Pope is expected to make the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), the name Lefebvre followers call their movement, into a personal prelature of the papacy, the same special status that conservative lay group Opus Dei was granted by John Paul II.
Benedict's decision marks a watershed. Following on the Pope's 2007 decision to widen use of the old Latin rite mass, the rapprochement with the traditionalist faction appears to be a purely papal initiative.
Beyond one or two retired Cardinals, few had been urging an end to the schism. The Society of St. Pius X itself had not budged from its hard line.
Some will hail Benedict as a bold defender of the rights of traditionalist Catholics and a man of conviction unbent by the winds of controversy; but others, both inside and outside the Church, will take his embrace of the Lefebvre followers as
the final proof that Benedict, deep down, is determined to make the Church far more traditional than it is today. 
