The Trouble With Pope Benedict XVI

If you think President Obama screwed up by appointing people with tax problems to head government ministries, you have to find an F-word to describe what Pope Benedict XVI did when he pardoned British Bishop Richard Williamson who was excommunicated from the Catholic fold. Bishop Williamson told a Swedish state TV that historical evidence was not there to support the Holocaust.

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Several Jewish groups are denouncing the Pope for doing so. Now Pope’s own German people are asking him to stop shaming them. Meanwhile the neo-Nazi group are celebrating the words of Bishop Williamson.

Already, Pope Benedict had annoyed Muslims when he made a speech linking Islam with violence. Where did he get that ridiculous idea? Was he rehabilitating a Holocaust denier in order to make Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, happy?

For disclosure purposes, I was never a supporter of Joseph Ratzinger for Pope. He has never been my Pope. If I were a voter, I would not have voted for him. But who am I? Do I count? Do I matter?

My issue has always been that it is too early to rehabilitate Germany this way. There is no better rehabilitation than the appointment of a German Pope less than 60 years after Adolf Hitler. In fact, it was worse because this Pope was in Hitler’s Youth’s company or something like that. Ideally, any German who saw Hitler should have been barred from being Pope. It would have been a good precaution. But nobody listens to me.

Now the Pope is in trouble. The Vatican is asking that we pray for him. We now have to hope that prayers will move the Pope away from other disastrous actions. I pray so.

By all indications, Pope Benedict XVI is shaping up to be for the Vatican what George W. Bush was to the United State – a disaster.

Maybe, maybe after his papacy, the Cardinals will vote for change. It is something worth praying for. Until then, I will have my chaplet deeply buried in a bucket of water.