The Holy Father is making a tough decision...

Bishop Richard Williamson is being reconciled to the Catholic Church. He was in schism by being ordained a bishop without the permission of the Pope in the Society of Pope St. Pius X.

Reuters: Pope rehabilitates Holocaust denier

This is the sort of the thing the Vatican ought to anticipate -- that Williamson has been speaking in public minimizing the Holocaust and endorsed the Protocols of the Elders of Zion -- and apart from the schism -- he would be required to repudiate those views.

There are few things that I consider beyond discussion and these are two of them. The Protocols are a ridiculous fiction originally targeted at Napoleon III and the French. (Wikipedia) and silly notion that a mere 300,000 Jews died at the hands of Nazi genocide. There seems to be no popular conspiracy theory that Bp Williamson doesn't believe.

I have a genuine concern on two levels when a person who not only holds these views privately but discusses them publicly. First, the pulpit of a Catholic bishop in fill communion with the Church is the wrong place to give to someone to propagate these views. Adding the authority of a bishop to these views helps the promoters of anti-Semitism spread these lies.

Secondly, and this is the one that gets the 20 point headlines. It is ammunition for everyone who sees that the Catholic Church is anti-Semitic. And this time, they have a point. The dismissal of these charges by the media people in the Vatican is insulting.

Asked about Williamson's comments, chief Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said they were "totally extraneous" to the lifting of the excommunications.

"This act regards the lifting of the excommunications, period," Lombardi told reporters.

"It has nothing to do with the personal opinions of a person, which are open to criticism, but are not pertinent to this decree."

Personal opinions matter and Father, you should have had a better response prepared to this issue. Those opinions cannot and should not be defended.