Pope Francis Seeks Reconciliation with Anti-semitic Order of Priests

By Betty Clermont
Daily Kos
September 25, 2015

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/25/1424731/-Pope-Francis-Seeks-Reconciliation-With-Anti-Semitic-Order-of-Priests

Today, Pope Francis is leading a multi-religious service at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

“Pope Francis' decision that during the Jubilee Year of Mercy the faithful can receive absolution from priests of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) is the most recent attempt at reconciliation with the priestly society [and] can be seen in the context of a hope for full reconciliation.”

In June 2012, the Simon Wiesenthal Center named SSPX as influential within the French far-right, anti-Semitic party.

In January 2012, it was noted that British fascism posed a “real danger” and “might draw strength from the assiduous networking” of the SSPX. “Further connections are being built among the elite of British fascism, where far-right Catholics associated with the Society of St Pius X are increasingly active.”

When the fascist leader of the SSPX, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, consecrated four bishops without the permission of Pope John Paul II in 1988, the illicit consecration resulted in the excommunication of the five bishops. The excommunications were lifted in 2009 by Benedict XVI amid a media outcry because one of the bishops was a Holocaust-denier.

In Buenos Aires, Catholics, Jews and Protestants hold an annual ceremony in the Metropolitan Cathedral “to mark Kristallnacht, the Nazi-led mob violence in 1938 when about 1,000 Jewish synagogues were burned and thousands of Jews were forced into concentration camps, launching the genocide that killed 6 million Jews.” SSPX members disrupted the Nov. 13, 2013, ceremony by shouting the rosary and the “Our Father” and distributed pamphlets stating, “followers of false gods must be kept out of the sacred temple.” Fr. Christian Bouchacourt, leader of the SSPX in South America, said his organization had the right to feel outraged when rabbis preside over a ceremony in a Catholic cathedral.

Talks between the SSPX and the Vatican resumed in 2014 at the direction of Pope Francis.

Cardinal Poli, who Pope Francis named as his successor in Buenos Aires, “recognized a branch of the SSPX as an ‘association of diocesan right,’ marking the first time [the group] has been officially recognized by a Catholic diocese.” At Poli's request "the Argentine government has recognized the SSPX [which] entitles the SSPX to the help of the country’s government, which is pledged to support the Catholic Church."

Holocaust

Holocaust survivors and their heirs are petitioning this pope to audit accounts at the Vatican Bank believed to have held funds looted during the Second World War by Nazi allied governments. Pope Francis has refused to address or even acknowledge the issue.

Financial columnist, Brett Arends: “The president, the media and other public figures ought to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jewish groups and insist that if Pope Francis wants to be hailed for his openness and candor … he can start by at last throwing open the Vatican’s secret records about its shady dealings with Hitler, Mussolini and their allies before, during and after World War II. What did the Vatican know about the Holocaust and other atrocities taking place? How much did it cover up? And, most of all, how much did it profit from them?”

Dalai Lama

Pope Frances refused the Dalai Lama’s request for a meeting on December 11, 2014, because “the Holy See’s relationship with the Chinese government is currently going through a very delicate - a crucial in fact - phase. In recent weeks China appeared to be reaching out to the Vatican, signaling a willingness for dialogue.”

"I am deeply saddened and distressed that the Holy Father, Pope Francis, should give in to these pressures and decline to meet the Dalai Lama,'” South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in a statement.

China has been waging a “calculated and systematic strategy aimed at the destruction of Tibet's national and cultural identities," often personified by their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

The pope's refusal was a victory for China. "[T]he attention of public opinion in the West to the Dalai Lama is going down by the day," a Chinese official said on December 19, 2014. "The Dalai Lama has no good ideas. All he can do is use his religious title to write about the continuation or not of the Dalai Lama to get eyeballs overseas," he added.