Of Schönborn, the Vatican, questionable bishops and speaking frankly...

On November 9, 2008, Cantor Shmuel Barzilai welcomes Vienna's Archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schönborn for a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the 1938 November pogroms at the great synagogue on in Vienna. Austria joined Germany in marking the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom, a prelude to the Holocaust. Photo by Getty Images

In the combox on my previous post Concord Carpenter opined that I wouldn't be able to resist an occasional comment on church news. It bothers me less that he's right and much more that the proof of his prediction would come in the very next post!

Just couldn't resist bringing this to your attention.

Below are some snips from an article by Christa Pongratz-Lippitt in the current issue of The Tablet. Not everyone here may be familiar with all the players in this story but most significant is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna. Schönborn was the Vatican's Director of the project which became the Catechism of the Catholic Church - no heterodox theologian he - and a cardinal to boot. One is struck by the honest and frankness of his words, a tone seldom heard from the hierarchy about in-house matters. From the article in The Tablet:

One of the beneficiaries of Pope Benedict XVI's act of mercy was Bishop Richard Williamson, a Holocaust denier of whose reputation, we are told, the Pope was unaware. The ensuing furore echoed around the globe, but was especially intense, for obvious reasons, in the German-speaking world.

To their credit, several German-speaking cardinals spoke out immediately, and Cardinal Schönborn was one of the first to criticise the Vatican on the way it had handled the Williamson case, saying: "A mistake has obviously occurred here. Someone who denies the Holocaust cannot be rehabilitated to an ecclesial office. One cannot but voice a certain criticism of the Vatican for not looking into the matter more closely."

Confronted shortly afterwards with the announcement of the appointment as auxiliary bishop in Linz of Gerhard Maria Wagner, who claims that Hurricane Katrina was divine retribution for the sins of New Orleans' homosexuals and abortionists, Cardinal Schönborn, who is Archbishop of Vienna, published a moving and unambiguous "Word of Comfort and Encouragement" to the priests and church employees in his diocese in his monthly newsletter, Thema Kirche:

"I can imagine that many of you don't feel too good at the moment. Neither do I," he wrote. "Once again we are confronted with occurrences that cause grief and indignation. They make us shake our heads and seem incomprehensible. And once again the Church has been made to look stupid and so have we. And again we ask, ‘Is this really necessary? Have we deserved this? Are we to be spared nothing?' At a time when the Church should really be dealing with the crucial worries that face people today such as the financial crisis and unemployment, it is confronted with debates about a small group of people who refuse to recognise the Second Vatican Council, or at least crucial parts of it, who think the Pope and the Church are on the wrong path and who consider themselves as the true Catholic Church. And on top of that we are now faced with the uproar concerning the new auxiliary in Linz. This is all a bit much and can give rise to a feeling of hopelessness."

Last Sunday Fr Wagner asked the Pope to accept his withdrawal from consideration for the office, and the Pope accepted his request.

(Read the complete article)

-ConcordPastor