In 1633 the Catholic Church put Galileo Galilei on trial for heresy, for the crime of believing that the earth moved around the sun. Somehow, it had become an article of faith to believe that the earth stood still in the heavens, while the sun and the stars swirled around it. Legend has it that after publicly abjuring his statements, which just happened to be true, Galileo muttered, under his breath, “Nonetheless, it moves“. Whether he said that or not, there’s not much doubt that he continued to believe that the earth did move. The Church had done no more than force him to lie to save his skin.
In what is probably the most farcical of many farcical echoes of that famous case, this week the Pope demanded that a recently un-excommunicated Bishop renounce his views on the Holocaust, those views being that the holocaust never happened:
In a move designed to head off condemnation, Pope Benedict XVI ordered Bishop Richard Williamson to unequivocally and publicly renounce his claims that there were no gas chambers and that fewer than 300,000 Jews died in the Nazi death camps instead of the accepted figure of six million.
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The Vatican said: “Bishop Williamson, in order to be admitted to episcopal functions within the Church, will have to take his distance, in an absolutely unequivocal and public fashion, from his position on the Shoah, which the Holy Father was not aware of when the excommunication was lifted.”
That last statement is no doubt a lie. Williamson’s positions were well known. But that’s not where the farce comes in. Once again we have the Church demanding that someone believe something on command. This time, the Church is right, and the target is wrong, but there’s no difference in principle between the two situations. You can force a person to do something, or say something, but you can’t force them to believe something. Williamson may abjure his public position, or he may not (apparently, he has agreed to look into the question again), but the least likely outcome is that he will actually sincerely change his opinion. If he does as the Church requires, he will, in a weird sort of way, be violating the eighth commandment at the Pope’s insistence. He will be bearing truthful witness while believing he is bearing false witness, which is the moral equivalent of a lie. For like Galileo he will be muttering under his breath, “Nonetheless, there were no gas chambers”.
As to Benedict, he either understands this or he does not. If he does, then he is giving a cynical and sinful (at least according to formal Catholic doctrine) pass to an avowed anti-Semite. If he does not, then he’s a fool . My money is on the first option.
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