Pope tells Jews Holocaust denial unacceptable

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican said Thursday that Pope Benedict XVI will make his first visit to Israel in May and he told Jewish leaders that it was unacceptable for anyone, especially a priest, to deny the Holocaust.

The pope met with Jewish leaders in hopes of ending the rancor over a bishop who denied that 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis.

The Vatican also said that the pope's planned visit to Israel — the second official visit by a pope —would take place in May.

The Vatican scheduled the pope's audience with about 60 American Jewish leaders Thursday after Benedict lifted the excommunication of a traditionalist bishop who denied the Holocaust, sparking outrage among Jews and Catholics alike.

Issuing his strongest condemnation of Holocaust denial yet, Benedict affirmed the Catholic Church was "profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism."

"The hatred and contempt for men, women and children that was manifested in the Shoah was a crime against God and against humanity," Benedict said, using the Hebrew term for the Holocaust. "This should be clear to everyone, especially to those standing in the tradition of the Holy Scriptures."

"It is beyond question that any denial or minimization of this terrible crime is intolerable and altogether unacceptable," he said during the meeting in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.

Jewish leaders applauded his comments, saying the crisis with the church that had been sparked by Bishop Richard Williamson's comments was over.

In an interview with Swedish state TV broadcast Jan. 21, Williamson denied that any Jews were gassed during World War II. He said only about 200,000 to 300,000 Jews were killed, but none of them gassed.

The Vatican said Benedict did not know of Williamson's views when he agreed to lift the excommunication, and stressed that it did not in any way share Williamson's views. But confronted with mounting Jewish outrage, the Vatican demanded Williamson recant before he would be fully admitted as a bishop into the church.

Williamson has apologized for causing distress to the pope, but has not recanted. He said he would correct himself if he is satisfied by the evidence, but insisted in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel that examining it "will take time."