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Germany's four-year love affair with its own Bavarian-born Pope was in tatters yesterday after Chancellor Angela Merkel accused the Pontiff of giving the impression that Holocaust denial was "permissible" through his decision to pardon the British-born bishop Richard Williamson.
Merkel's extraordinary decision to wade into a worsening row between the Vatican and Jewish and Catholic leaders worldwide came just over a week after the Pope formally rehabilitated Bishop Williamson, who said in a recent interview: "Not a single Jew died in a gas chamber."
The German conservative leader said it was not her custom to intervene in church affairs, but added: "This is different when it comes to matters of principle, and I believe it is a matter of principle when ... the impression is created that denying the Holocaust could be permissible."
Merkel demanded that the Pope make it "absolutely clear" that there could be no Holocaust denial and that there "must be positive dealings with the Jews".
In what amounted to a blistering condemnation of the Pope's handling of the crisis, she added: "In my view, these issues have not yet been satisfactorily clarified."
The Vatican hit back just hours later, with spokesman Federico Lombardi declaring that the German Pope's position on the Holocaust and Holocaust denial "could not be any clearer".
Merkel's stand was out of the ordinary, said Elan Steinberg, vice-president of the New York-based American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants.
"Together with the expressions of outrage emanating from German and Austrian bishops, these developments have ironically strengthened relations between Germany and the world Jewish community."
There was speculation yesterday that Merkel's decision to publicly criticise Benedict XVI had followed a sea change in the German Catholic Church leadership's attitude to him.
Her onslaught came only hours after Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz called the decision to rehabilitate Williamson a "catastrophe".
Williamson, a 68-year-old Cambridge graduate, made the comments on Swedish television a fortnight ago.
He was pardoned as part of a move by the Pope in late January to overturn the excommunication of four bishops ordained by the arch-conservative Society of Saint Pius X.
The decision has been interpreted as a clear demonstration of the shift to the right that was already under way in the Vatican. But in Germany the response to the Pope's actions been a mixture of dismay, anger and disappointment.
This week's front cover of Der Spiegel magazine carried a photograph of Benedict XVI and the headline: "A German Pope disgraces the Catholic Church."
Last week, Israel's Chief Rabbinate suspended ties because of Williamson's reinstatement.
Germany's Central Council of Jews announced last week that it, too, was cutting ties.
Salomon Korn, the council's vice-president, accused Benedict XVI of undoing all the efforts to reconcile Jews and Catholics that had been started by his predecessor Pope John Paul II.
- Independent, additional reporting AP
