Great post. Zero tolerance is pretty weak intellectually and, as you say, just plain lazy.

The other thing to keep in mind is that a Catholic policy from the top has to work in all the countries. It is one thing to mandate that you go to the police in the USA. It's another in communist China, or Iran, or Malaysia, or anywhere that the cops and/or general populace would be happy to see one less cleric regardless of innocence.

Countries like England, Spain, France, and Mexico, which all used to be bastions on Catholicism in their day, have perpetrated some of the most systematic persecutions of Catholics and Clergy in history. So we ask your pardon when we are a little wary around governments.

And one final point, if I may. Decisions from the top down are millennia old. The doctrine of papal infallibility was akin to Proposition 8: it was promulgated to solve a contest to tradition rather than something new being instituted. So the Pope has always been infallible, now it's just put in plain speech rather than something that was just 'understood'.

Good stuff.

Ya, Christians like that give the rest of us a bad name. They ignore the great intellectual patrimony we have. Great minds like Augustine, Ireneaus, Bonaventure, Anselm, Aquinas, More, Loyola, Pascal, Chesterton, Hildebrand, Kreeft and Ratzinger, just to name a few heavyweights. Thomas Aquinas alone wrote a 17 volume work of logical objections and logical answers to the Christian faith and doctrine.

The atheist interlocutor raises some valid question, but nothing that hasn't been answered in detail in the past. The answers being of a logical and philosophical nature do not require sacred scripture, since that in and of itself would be illogical. Much like using a word to define itself. All that using scripture would prove is the incompatibility, not the invalidity.

The Christian faith does confess that the only path back to Heaven is Jesus. However, a deep understanding of these allows for "extra Ecclesiam nulla salus" to be true, and Feeneyism to be a false. This is something the Christian depicted cannot understand.

Apparently the Chancellor has not been paying attention. In his Wednesday audience last week, the Pope explained his reasoning. Then he continiued on to say the following about the Holocaust:

"In these days in which we remember the Shoah, my memory turns to the images taken in during my repeated visits to Auschwitz, one of the concentration camps in which was carried out the brutal massacre of millions of Jews, innocent victims of a blind racial and religious hate."

"As I renew with affection the expression of my total and indisputable solidarity with our brother recipients of the First Covenant, I hope that the memory of the Shoah moves humanity to reflect on the unpredictable power of evil when it conquers the human heart."

"May the Shoah teach especially, as much the old generations as the new ones, that only the tiring path of listening and dialogue, of love and pardon, leads peoples, cultures and religions of the world to the desired encounter of fraternity and peace in the world. May violence never again humiliate the dignity of man!"

The issue of the Hitler Youth has been resolved many times over: He was drafted as was everyone his age and was found in derelict of duty. This whole thing is getting ridiculous.

Actually there is a precedent for a Pope stepping down, albeit of his own volition. I don't remember his name, but he was a Dominican that was elected during a troubled time, he guided the Church through it, and then returned to his monastery. Also during the year of '3 Popes' (1 pope and 2 anti-popes) after the Avignon papacy, all 3 men stepped down and a new election was held. That is if memory serves.

They have asked repeatedly for 20 years for a repeal of the excommunications. Also, they have said that doing so without a Papal mandate was not an act against the Church, but an effort to preserve Tradition in a time of upheaval. I disagree with them, however the decision is not mine. Also I would point out, the only thing they are forgiven of is a Canonical crime, not a state crime. If the State chooses to prosecute him for anti-semitism, the Holy Father can do nothing.

In the Catholic Church, you must have the excommunication for a sin lifted before you can go to confession for that sin. Priests are often deputized with the authority to lift common excommunications, some are reserved at the Bishop level, and a few are reserved only to the Apostolic See (The Pope and those immediately under him). So this is but the first step. A person can, and as a Christian must, forgive someone for the wrong committed against them without their asking for it. However, forgiveness by God will not be given to the person until the repent.

The matter with forgiving Lucifer and the fallen angels is another matter of theology. Basically, angels do not 'grow' as humans do, so they do not change their minds. Ergo Lucifer will never repent.

Really this isn't the Pope's duty to apologize for anything. These 4 were excommunicated over something back in '88 that was a breach of Church Law in terms of the hierarchy, summarily an offense against the Pope himself. Nearly 21 years later, along with a lot of other work, this crime has been forgiven. That's all there is to it. As a Christian, you don't withhold forgiveness because the offender is an idiot.

None of these 4 have any standing within the Church Hierarchy, even if they weren't suspended a divinis. The superior of their order, Bishop Fellay, has public apologized for and repudiated the statements. On top of that he bound him by oath of obedience to not speak publicly on matters of history and politics.

Long story short, Williamson is a nut. If you think his comments about the holocaust are inflammatory, you should read some of the stuff a he has said against the current Pope and his predecessor. Again, though, these insults have nothing to do with the crime that he was punished for so they do not factor into the decision.