Monday, there was still more fallout now from the pope’s decision to lift the excommunications of four SSPX bishops:

A leading member of Germany’s Jewish community said Monday that Benedict XVI, the German-born pope and leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide, was sowing divisions and abetting far-right groups by rehabilitating four ultra-conservative bishops, one of whom has denied the Holocaust.

Stephan Kramer, secretary general of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said in an interview that because of the pope’s nationality, Benedict had a special responsibility to avoid creating rifts between religious groups over the comments of the controversial bishop, Richard Williamson of Britain.

“The pope’s decision is particularly disturbing in that he is also a German pope,” Kramer said. “Yes, he made a statement pledging solidarity with the Jews. But, frankly, the statement was made nearly 13 days after Williamson’s interview. Why? The question is how the pope wants to proceed from here in relations with the Jewish community.”

The decision last month by Benedict, a prominent conservative theologian and philosopher who became pope in 2005, to reach out to the conservative bishops has jolted the Jewish community here, as well as liberal wings of the country’s 26-million-strong Catholic Church.

Williamson told Swedish television last month that “I believe there were no gas chambers,” adding that no more than 300,000 Jews died in the Nazi concentration camps, rather than 6 million. Public prosecutors have opened an investigation, because denial of the Holocaust is a crime in Germany. The Council of Jews in Germany immediately broke relations with the Vatican, ending, for the time being, a dialogue that had taken decades to nurture.

Kramer said the pope’s decision to rehabilitate the men, particularly Williamson, was “quite shocking.” It would, he said, give credence to views by some from the far right, and also some conservative Catholics, that the Holocaust did not exist or that its scale was exaggerated.

Kramer said he intended, along with the members from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the highest church body here, to seek a meeting with Benedict “in order that he clarify” not only his decision on the renegade bishops but also what it means for Catholic-Jewish relations.

Check out the link for more.

Meantime, Rocco has linked to this item, which underscores the criticism of Benedict’s move from some senior members of his own hierarchy:

Werner Thissen, the archbishop of Hamburg, said Pope Benedict XVI should have lifted the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson only if he had recanted his “unspeakable” claim that the Nazis did not use gas chambers.

He criticised the Vatican’s “sloppy” handling of Bishop Williamson’s rehabilitation, which caused a furore around the world, incensing Jewish groups and moderate Catholics.

Lifting the excommunication, imposed on Williamson and three other renegade bishops 20 years ago, has proved a public relations disaster for the Vatican, which underestimated the anger that the move would arouse.

Days before the bishops were welcomed back into the Church’s embrace, Swedish television broadcast an interview with Bishop Williamson in which he said that historical accounts of the Holocaust were “lies, lies, lies.”

“To rehabilitate a Holocaust denier is always a bad decision. That the efforts of the Pope coincide with the unspeakable remarks of Bishop Williamson is terrible,” said Archbishop Thissen.

“It shouldn’t have happened that an act of goodness – concern for Church unity – should be associated with a bad one – that is, the debate about a Holocaust denier. This definitely undermines trust in the Church.”

UPDATE: A cardinal is lamenting the communication skills — or lack thereof — within the Vatican:

The controversy over a traditionalist bishop who has minimized the full extent of the Holocaust was fueled in part by a lack of communication within the Vatican, said a cardinal who coordinates Vatican dialogue with the Jews.

“Up to now people in the Vatican have spoken too little with each other and have not checked where problems might arise,” Cardinal Walter Kasper told Vatican Radio’s German program Feb. 2.

“There were misunderstandings and management errors in the Curia,” he said…,

PHOTO:Pope Benedict XVI at a service in St. Peter Basilica at the Vatican on Monday. (Alessandra Tarantino/The Associated Press)