Your House Is Left Unto You Desolate!

AP, 4 March 2009: Cardinal Roger Mahony on Tuesday took the unusual step of banning Holocaust-denying British Bishop Richard Williamson from any Roman Catholic church, school or other facility in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. "Holocaust deniers like Williamson will find no sympathetic ear or place of refuge in the Catholic Church, of which he is not — and may never become — a member," said a commentary signed jointly by Mahony, head of the nation's largest archdiocese, and two officials of the American Jewish Committee, Rabbi Gary Greenebaum, U.S. director of interreligious affairs of the American Jewish Committee, and Seth Brysk, the committee's Los Angeles executive director.

"The cardinal wishes to send a clear signal to the Jewish community that Williamson is not a member or even welcome in the Catholic Church until he renounces his views," said Tod Tamberg, spokesman for the archdiocese. "The cardinal also wanted to signal that he is in full agreement with the Vatican that Williamson must apologize for and distance himself from his views," he added.

Mahony's measure is the latest repudiation of Williamson since January, when the Vatican announced that his excommunication was being lifted. That same day, Swedish television aired a previously taped interview in which Williamson denied that gas chambers existed and said that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews, not 6 million, perished in Nazi concentration camps. The ensuing outrage caused Pope Benedict XVI to suspend lifting the excommunication, saying Williamson could only be reconciled with the church if he publicly retracts and apologizes for his Holocaust denial.

Williamson, who is one of four excommunicated members of an ultra-traditionalist Catholic group, the Society of St. Pius X, apologized for offending people, but did not indicate that he had changed his views.

The ban resulted from Mahony's meeting two weeks ago with Greenebaum and Brysk. Greenebaum said he requested the meeting to discuss the Vatican's flip-flopping position on Williamson. The cardinal took him aback by suggesting the ban, Greenebaum said. "It took me by surprise a little bit," he said. "It's a very strong, very welcome statement."

Religion experts said Mahony's ban is largely symbolic, but believed to be unprecedented. "I don't know how it would be enforced," said Philip A. Cunningham, director of the Jewish-Catholic Institute at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. "But having positive relations with the Jewish community is important to the cardinal."

Mahony said he plans to visit the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem this year.

This is an amazing statement:

The cardinal wishes to send a clear signal to the Jewish community that Williamson is not a member or even welcome in the Catholic Church until he renounces his views. . .

Who understands the significance?

The SILENCE with which the visible church greeted this announcement must surely grieve the Holy Spirit.

The Apostle Paul wrote:

A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject; Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.

But who is the heretick? Bishop Williamson? Or Roger Mahony?

Bishop Williamson does not deny the virgin birth of our Lord and Savior. Bishop Williamson does not deny the divinity of our Lord and Savior. There is no evidence Bishop Williamson denies any doctrine of the faith of Christ contained in the apostle’s creed.

On what basis then does Roger Mahony deny Bishop Williamson membership in the Church?

Roger Mahony declares Bishop Williamson is a *holocaust denier!*

Bishop Williamson has no faith six millions Jews died in Nazi concentration camps and he has no faith in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

Therefore, declares Roger Mahony, Bishop Williamson is outside the Church of Christ.

Who understands the significance?

Roger Mahony, head of America’s largest archdiocese, has just elevated the holocaust to Co-Redeemer, equal to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And yet if one reads Romans 10:9 – 10, no mention of the holocaust is found:

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Even if one believes Bishop Williamson’s questioning of the holocaust is a sin, only one sin disqualifies from the faith:

Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

Thus spoke the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Lord and Savior said you could even speak a word against Him, and it could be forgiven. . .

But Roger Mahony says to speak against the authorized version of the holocaust cannot be forgiven. Roger Mahony says Bishop Williamson is no longer a member of the Church of Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ said:

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand. I and my Father are one.

The Heavenly Father gave Bishop Williamson to Christ, yet Roger Mahony claims the power to pluck him out of Christ’s hand.

Who is the heretick?

Roger Mahony elevates the holocaust to Co-Redeemer and requires faith in it for entrance into the Church of Christ.

This, to understate the case, is a new gospel.

The Apostle Paul wrote:

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

Roger Mahony would do well to carefully consider the above.

It would seem, at worst, Bishop Williamson, on the matter of the holocaust, is a kook. His great public sin is to question the number of Jews killed at the hands of the Nazis, and to doubt the existence of the Auschwitz gas chambers. Yes, this is offensive to Jews, and for this, Bishop Williamson ought to apologize, based on a charitable interpretation of the teaching in Romans 14. And, in point of fact, as the above article mentions, Bishop Williamson HAS apologized.

But what say you? Which is the greater sin? Bishop Williamson offending the Jews? Or a priest raping a Christian child? And let us not misunderstand. I do not believe any sin other than blaspheming the Holy Spirit invalidates the faith of Christ. But we ask this question to try to better comprehend Roger Mahony’s strange new gospel.

Our Lord Jesus Christ stated:

But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

As the head of the diocese of Los Angeles, Roger Mahony protected the pedophile priest Oliver O’Grady, as is detailed in the documentary film Deliver Us From Evil.

It is interesting to consider that Roger Mahony claims the authority to remove Bishop Williamson from Christ’s Hand over the matter of politically incorrect statements, but not only saw no need to remove Oliver O’Grady, he did not even see the need to keep O’Grady from having contact with Christ’s faithful little ones.

Do not misunderstand, I do not believe O’Grady should be removed from the Church. If He truly is covered by the blood of Christ, that blood covers all, including child molestation. But I bring up O’Grady to highlight Roger Mahony’s curious weighing of sins.

Is it possible Roger Mahony, stung by the world’s criticism of his handling of O’Grady case, now wants to try to score some cheap public relations points at the expense of Bishop Williamson?

For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. . .

Make note, Roger Mahony published his new gospel in collaboration with two anti-Christs:

Rabbi Gary Greenebaum & Seth Brysk.

The world will praise Roger Mahony’s new gospel as *tolerant,* when, in truth, it is intolerant. By appearing to not tolerate supposed *anti-semitism,* Mahony’s new gospel will be judged as tolerant, since it’s chief concern is to accommodate those outside the faith of Christ.

With his courting of public opinion, Roger Mahony resembles the scribes and Pharisees of Christ’s day:

But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.

We can be certain Roger Mahony will be warmly greeted at his planned visit to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

The church ought to be outraged Roger Mahony claims authority to remove Bishop Williamson from the church, and the church also ought to be outraged that Mahony wrote his new church regulations with two men who stand outside the church and who deny the blood of Christ.

Roger Mahony gives the keys to the Church to two men who consider Jesus Christ a false prophet. . .

And the visible church stands SILENT. . .

It ought to be evident to the church that Roger Mahony is the heretic, not Bishop Williamson.

Bishop Williamson will endure his trial. . .Christ will bring him through.

It may appear to the uninitiated that Bishop Williamson’s sin has found him out. . .but is it not more the case God has used Bishop Williamson to find out the sin of the church? In particular, the Catholic church?

The *logic* of Pope Benedict XVI’s double-minded dealing with Bishop Williamson reminds of the high priest Caiaphas, who deduced thusly about Christ:

Consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. . .

If the Catholic church continues to betray the faithful to gain favor with the world, her end shall be the same as Jerusalem’s:

Behold! Your house is left unto you desolate!