Last Friday, British Catholic bishop, Richard Williamson, was fined 10,000 euros by a German court for “holocaust denial”.

He had been fined 12,000 euros earlier this year over the same charge, but he refused to pay — hence the new trial.

The court convicted him because he said in a television interview broadcast in January 2009, that “200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, but none of them in gas chambers”.

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Background:

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, superior of the Society of Saint Pius the Tenth (SSPX), consecrated Bishop Williamson and three others as bishops in 1988 without the blessing of Pope John Paul II, who then proceeded to excommunicate all five of those involved.

The validity of this excommunication was always contested, and was reversed by Pope Benedict in January 2009.

Pope Benedict then announced that there would be formal discussions between the Vatican and the SSPX over their differences, especially concerning the “reforms” of the Second Vatican Council  of 1962-65.

These discussions are now taking place, providing the SSPX with an opportunity to explain the doctrinal reasons it believes to be the basis of the Church’s present difficulties.

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It seems that modernist elements in the Church are seeking to discredit Pope Benedict by drawing attention to unfashionable views of Bishop Williamson, whom he reinstated.

For them, Germany’s bizarre laws prohibiting free expression of opinion regarding certain historical events must seem a “godsend”.

The laws could equally logically be considered a “Satan-send” — depending on who is right about the Second Vatican Council.

The problems with that Council include its teaching that the Catholic Church is not the one and only true Church established by Christ – as the Church had taught for the previous 19 centuries.

The Council also spawned the new Mass liturgy which downplays the supernatural aspects of the Faith, including the Real Presence of Christ and his sacrifice in the Eucharist – as the Church had taught for the previous 19 centuries.

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The Council’s supporters in the Vatican currently have the numbers — but it could be argued that it is the SSPX which has the Faith.

Pope Benedict certainly isn’t one of their most fanatical enemies.