Richard Williamson, an ultra-traditionalist catholic bishop from the Society of Pope Pius X has put the current pope in quite a bind. Pope Benedict has recently been putting in a major effort to increase church numbers by reeling back in segments of the catholic church that for years had seemed too radical, some who had even been excommunicated from the church were welcomed back. Williamson is part of a radical sect of catholicism that vehemently denies the holocaust ever happened and has some very extreme positions of faith, but in a recent blog post, he reopens a wound that Pope John Paul II tried to close by saying that the jews were responsible for the deicide of the christian god. B16 will have some PR cleaning up to do here, but he knew what he was getting the church into by trying to welcome these radicals back.
Williamson's Blog Post:
The killing of Jesus was truly deicide and that only the Jews (leaders and people) were the prime agents of the deicide because it is obvious from the gospels that the gentile most involved, Pontius Pilate … would never have condemned Jesus to death had not the Jewish leaders roused the Jewish people to clamour for his crucifixion.
I obviously have issues with this type of thinking. 1, it's extremely dangerous speech, inciting hate and anger for no good reason between competing religions. As if we didn't have enough to worry about on that front as it is. 2, there isn't any evidence Jesus even existed at all, so to go around claiming a group of people guilty for killing someone we're not even sure existed is just ludicrous. 3, it was pontius pilate in the story who condemned jesus to death, so if you want to blame someone, blame him above all. He had the final say. 4, jesus was sent here to die. If you believe the legends, then this was supposed to happen for the salvation of all people through his death on the cross. If he wasn't innocently killed the way he was, then there is no point to the story, no scapegoat for all of our sins. This is something that christians celebrate, so why vilify the very people you claim made this "wonderful story" come to fruition. Easter is one of the biggest holidays in christianity if not the biggest. The celebration of his death and resurrection is the basis for the whole religion. If he didn't die, then to be resurrected from the dead, then you have no story, no god, no forgiveness of sins, and the prophecy of his return and the destruction of all life on earth can't come true.
I'm not sure where to go from here other than to hope this jerk gets called out by his peers and put in his place. We have enough issues already with religion. Leave it alone.
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