Canadian Jewish Congress is among Jewish groups worldwide expressing concern that Pope Benedict’s decision to lift an excommunication order against a bishop who doubts the accuracy of facts about the Holocaust could negatively affect Catholic-Jewish relations.

Rabbi Reuven Bulka

In a statement last week, Congress called on local Catholic leaders to speak out against the decision.

Late last month, the Pope revoked an excommunication order against four bishops who were part of a Catholic faction that rejects the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, which introduced reforms to improve relations with Jews.

The Pope’s move is seen as an attempt to bring the bishops back into the Catholic fold, as long as they accept the authority of Church teachings.

Among the four is Bishop Richard Williamson, who has said he doubts the accuracy of the accepted history of the Holocaust.

“I believe that the historical evidence is hugely against six million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler,” Bishop Williamson said in an interview with Swedish television that aired just days before the papal ruling and the International Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust on Jan. 27.

“I believe there were no gas chambers,” Bishop Williamson added.

“I think that 200- to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps… but none of them by gas chambers.”

Canadian Jewish Congress urged the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) to condemn the Pope’s decision to lift the excommunication.

“We call on the leadership of the Catholic Church in Canada to follow the lead of bishops in France, Belgium and Germany, among other countries, in denouncing the Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism of Bishop Williamson and in reaffirming in no uncertain terms that such hateful views have no place in the Church,” CJC co-president Rabbi Reuven Bulka said.

“Indeed, we call upon all Catholics in Canada, on the pulpit and from the pew, to join in this denunciation.”

Other Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and B’nai Brith International, have also criticized Bishop Williamson for his comments about the Holocaust.

As well, the Pope’s move prompted the Israeli Chief Rabbinate to break its ties with the Vatican and suspended an annual interfaith meeting with Catholic leaders, scheduled for next month in Jerusalem.

In response to calls from the Jewish community, the CCCB released a statement that said it “finds abhorrent the notion that somehow the terrible evil of the Holocaust is not a fact of history and joins the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI in calling on all people to recognize that the Holocaust is ‘an admonition against oblivion, negation and reductionism.’”

The CCCB said it rejects Bishop Williamson’s comments and added that he “has been forbidden to speak further on this question.”

The CCCB said it remains “committed to dialogue with the Jews.”

Speaking with The CJN, CCCB president James Weisgerber, the Archbishop of Winnipeg, said the Pope’s decision on Bishop Williamson was made so that the Pope would be in a better position to preside over him.

“If he is outside the Church, there is nothing we can do about it, but when he is in the Church, then he has to deal with this stuff,” Archbishop Weisgerber said.

But, he added, everyone was shocked by Bishop Williamson’s statements.

“It is very clear that this view is not only unaccepted, but it is completely idiotic.”

Following CJC’s call to the CCCB to respond, Rabbi Bulka met with Papal Nuncio Luigi Ventura, the Vatican’s ambassador to Canada, to convey the concerns of the Jewish community.

CJC spokesperson Jordan Kerbel said Ventura made a commitment that he would visit with the Pope and express the concerns of the Canadian Jewish community.

“We explicitly asked the nuncio to convey to the Vatican that [Bishop] Williamson must publicly renounce his odious views before being granted full communion and welcomed back into the Church,” Rabbi Bulka said in a statement.

With files from JTA.