Holocaust day

Comments: one excellent post by Fr Finnigan directs our attention to a very good article by Christopher Ferrara on the appalling damage done to the SSPX's own cause by his remarks denying the Holocaust.

Another recounts some interesting anecdotes about the liberation of Belson, one of the camps where Jews and others were exterminated, including the description of a Mass celebrated by a Polish priest which was witnessed by Lord Molyneaux, who was one of the liberating soldiers.

The most moving experience came on the second morning as I was walking from what had been the luxury SS barracks which our troops had transformed into a hospital. My attention was drawn to two packing cases covered by a worn red curtain. A young Polish priest was clinging to this makeshift altar with one hand, while celebrating Mass. Between his feet lay the body of another priest who probably died during the night. No one had had the energy to move the body.

I had no difficulty in following the old Latin Mass, having been educated at St James's Roman Catholic School in County Antrim, and, although an Anglican, I had gained a working knowledge of all the rituals. Still supporting himself against the altar, the young priest did his best to distribute the consecrated elements. Some recipients were able to stumble over the rough, scrubby heathland. Others crawled forward to receive the tokens and then crawled back to share them with others unable to move. Some almost certainly passed on to another - probably better - world before sunset. Whatever one's race or religion one can only be uplifted and impressed by that truly remarkable proof of the ultimate triumph of good over evil.

Let no one imagine that a position within the Catholic church favourable to her traditions has any connection with the demented desire to minimise the suffering of Hitler's victims.