20 September 2010
The appeal of the renegade Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson against his conviction by a German court in Regensburg for Holocaust denial will be held at the end of November, his lawyer has said. Williamson is set to appear in person at his trial in Regensburg in November, where he wants the fine imposed by a lower court in April of € 10,000 for public incitement to hatred overturned. Williamson, 70, appeared on Swedish television in 2008, saying that there had been no gas chambers in Nazi concentration camps and that not more than 300,000 Jews had died there. The bishop, a member of the breakaway ultra-conservative Catholic St. Pius X Society (SSPX), was fined for his Holocaust denial because the interview was recorded on German soil.
At the previous trial, his fraternity banned him from attending in person, but his attorney said he would probably appear in court in November. Pope Benedict XVI unleashed a deluge of criticism last year when he reversed the excommunication of Williamson and three other SSPX bishops in a bid to heal the rift with the fraternity.
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While I agree that everyone shluod be treated with respect, I also believe that it is very disrespectful for anyone to try to circumvent the law which is exactly what someone in the USA illegally is doing. If those entering the country were doing it legally and with the respect they want in return, there would be no need for these kind of laws in the first place. Those that have entered illegally and disrespectfully have created their own issue. Time for them to be accountable.
The best way to make people pay attention to the truth is to make it illegal to speak it!
Jews make it Illegal to disagree!? Really???
Remember, stating the world was round was once considered Heresy!
The denial of the Holocaust, is the idea of an Islamic, that anyone who denies the Holocaust is none humanity
Anti-Semitism has deep roots in the world, especially in Europe, where it has festered endemically for dozens of centuries. The Catholic Church promoted Jewish hatred for two thousand years. Millions of innocent Jewish men, women and children were murdered during the Crusades, the English Expulsion and the Spanish Inquisition – all in the name of Christ. During those formative years, the Church held influence over its pastoral community with a firm grip. Over successive centuries, the seminal existence of anti-Semitism became latent at times; yet it was never far from the surface. Thus, when Hitler pushed for the extermination of Jews, he met little resistance. Sadly, his effort to remove Jews from Europe required little vigor to impose.
Williamson might fit in nicely during the Crusades or perhaps the Spanish Inquisition. He is undoing whatever meager progress has been made in Catholic/Jewish relations since the Shoah. One might have suspected the Vatican to put his historical revision to an end. This can only serve as an embarrassment to the Church.
A world that continues to allow genocide requires ethical remediation. We must show the world that religious, racial, ethnic and gender persecution is wrong; and that tolerance is our progeny's only hope. Only through such efforts can we reveal the true horror of genocide and promote the triumphant spirit of humankind.
Charles Weinblatt Author, Jacob’s Courage http://jacobscourage.wordpress.com/
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