Williamson in England

Comment: Bishop Williamson has arrived in England. The brouhaha will continue, since he is now potentially subject to a European arrest warrent issued by a German prosecutor for denying the Holocaust (which he did on German soil).

More worrying is the fact that he was met at the airport by Michele Renouf, and has been corresponding with David Irving. Renouf and Irving are of course veteran Holocaust deniers. It is interesting to note that Renouf hates Judaism as a religion, to an extent which implicates Christianity as well. According to Wikipedia she wrote to a certain Barry Chamish 

I do not hold you personally responsible for the disastrously sociopathic formulation of the Hebrew Scriptures!

Renouf's attitude is reminiscent of that of Charles Mauras, the founder of Action Francaise at the end of the 19th century, who's anti-semitism was the consequence of his hatred for the entire Judeao-Christian tradition. He thought that Christianity, in displacing classical paganism, had been a disaster. For complicated reasons, Mauras was influential for many French Catholics, and it is often said that the SSPX attracts the same segment of French Catholic opinion which Action Francaise did.

But it wasn't Maurass's Christianophobia which attracted French Catholics; they were either too stupid or too desperate for allies to make the connection. Does Williamson believe that the Hebrew Scriptures (ie the Old Testament) are 'disasterously sociopathic'? What on earth is he doing with these people? Has the SSPX lost control of him, or is his arrival in England to join up with a legal team organised by Renouf a plan of which his superiors approve?

The danger is that Williams is going down a spiral of self-delusion. But bear these points in mind.

-Williamson's Hollocause denial is not an example of German neo-nazism or French anti-semitism in the SSPX. 

He's not German, he's not French, he's picked up this rubbish as part of a package of conspiracy theories in the English-speaking world which include mad ideas about 9/11.

-Williamson's views are irrelevant to the question of the SSPX's reconciliation with Rome. 

He holds no appointment in the Catholic Church or in the SSPX. His views are his own; since they have caused scandal he has rightly been forbiden to air them. End of story.

-Williamson's derangement does not excuse his demonisation: he has a right to our charity and to his communion with the Church. 

Hollocaust denial does not equal schism or heresy: not all sinners, even stubborn ones, are schismatics or heretics. 

-Still less does it excuse the demonisation of Bishop Fellay or the SSPX in general: a disgraceful example of this is on show in Damian Thompson's latest post. 

The SSPX is not a repository for anti-Semites; people with objectional views are to be found accross the spectrum of the Church. If the Pope sees a large body of people who wish to be in good standing with him but are not, it is natural and indeed morally necessary for him to seek their reconciliation in charity.