Welcome back, Dick

Why am I sick of the established Church? Read on. A little digging reveals a few interesting facts about Bishop Richard Williamson, recently having been made homeless by his expulsion from Argentina and within a whisker of being restored to the fold of the faithful. He wrote:

However, until they (the Jews) re-discover their true Messianic vocation, they may be expected to continue fanatically agitating, in accordance with their false messianic vocation of Jewish world-dominion, to prepare the Anti-Christ's throne in Jerusalem. So we may fear their continuing to play their major part in the agitation of the East and in the corruption of the West. Here the wise Catholic will remember that, again, the ex-Christian nations have only their own liberalism to blame for allowing free circulation within Christendom to the enemies of Christ.

Food for thought here, especially as the remitter of the excommunication is, of course Benedict, who in a previous incarnation as Cardinal Ratzinger, together with the ultratraditionalist Cardinal Castrillón (who is looking more and more like the author of the rapprochement) was JPII's messenger boy to try to win back the wayward Lefebvrites.

Yad VaShem, quite properly has publicly announced that 'saying sorry' without retraction really isn't enough and the Vatican has agreed, assuming rightly that an already fragile relationship between Rome and Jerusalem might be damaged beyond repair unless they were seen to be taking a firm line. Truthful regret, dear Richard, isn't quite the same thing as recantation, is it? Stop trying to bleed your theology to death using the leeches of far-Right politics and go back to the incomprehensible Latin mumblings that you're all famous for. Oh, yeah - and it doesn't do you or the Church much good if you threaten journalists at the airport when they are deporting you, either...At least the Israelis responded with typically Jewish satire and said sorry afterwards, even before the Papal Nuncio complained...

A final word...Vatican insiders know Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos well. The steely-eyed Colombian Cardinal, 79, served for nine years as head of the Congregation for Clergy, where in 2002 he drew the wrath of victims of American-priest sex abuse for denying that the Catholic Church had any particular problem with paedophiles in its ranks.

God save us all from troublesome priests. I think I like the football better than the mitre belonging to Pius XI.