A dear friend of mine whose parents were both Holocaust survivors asked me the other night: Why did Pope Benedict lift the excommunication order of a hateful, clearly deranged Holocaust-denying bishop? For a man as smart as the pope, it seems a astonishingly thoughtless act, one for which the consequences could’ve been easily predicted. This story offers some, but certainly not enough, explanation.

The New York Times reports here: ROME — Responding to global outrage, especially in Pope Benedict XVI’s native Germany, the Vatican for the first time on Wednesday called on a recently rehabilitated bishop to take back his statements denying the Holocaust.

The New York Times reports: VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI reaching out to the far-right of the Roman Catholic Church, revoked the excommunications of four schismatic bishops on Saturday, including one whose comments denying the Holocaust have provoked outrage.  The decision provided fresh fuel for critics who charge that Benedict’s four-year-old papacy has increasingly moved in line with traditionalists who are hostile to the sweeping reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s that sought to create a more modern and open church.