Vatican highlights pope's condemnations of Holocaust, anti-Semitism

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Published: JANUARY 27, 2009 18:47
The Vatican is highlighting Pope Benedict XVI's record of condemning the Holocaust and anti-Semitism amid an outcry that he rehabilitated a bishop who claims that no Jews were gassed during World War II. Vatican Radio aired a lengthy program Tuesday to mark Holocaust remembrance day. It recalled Benedict's 2006 visit to Auschwitz, his 2005 visit to the main synagogue in Cologne, Germany, and other remarks over the years in which he has denounced the "insane, racist ideology" that produced the Holocaust. The Vatican has been intensifying its defense of Benedict after Jewish groups voiced outrage that he lifted the excommunication of a traditionalist bishop, Richard Williamson, who has denied that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust.