Phone call between Pope Benedict XVI and Chancellor Angela..

On Sunday February 9, Benedict XVI and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed by phone the controversy that has risen in recent days, regarding the denial of the Holocaust by one of the bishops whose excommunication was recently lifted by the Holy Father. During the telephone conversation, they exchanged their respective points of view, referring once again to declarations that both the Holy Father and the German Chancellor recently made. Merkel had considered the Holy Father's statements insufficient and called for Bishop Williiamson to apologize for denying the Nazi Holocaust. According to reports made on Saturday by the German press, Bishop Richard Williamson is opposed to retracting his statements "until he discovers historical evidence" that contradicts his thesis about what happened in the Nazi death camps. He also reiterated his criticism of Vatican Council II. In reponse to Merkel's declarations, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told Vatican Radio that the Holy Father "recognizes and condemns with complete clarity the Holocaust of the Jewish people during the time of Nazism." The Holy Father declared in an statement released earlier that the 'Shoah is for all a warning against forgetfulness, denial or reductionism.'

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News & Politics

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• Holocaust
• telephone
• call
• German
• Chancellor