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Cardinal Sean O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, lights a candle during a re-dedication of the Yom Hashoah Menorah at the Pastoral Center of the Archdiocese in Braintree, Mass. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole)
Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, lights the first candle during a re-dedication of the Yom Hashoah Menorah at the Pastoral Center of the Archdiocese in Braintree, Mass. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole) BRAINTREE, Mass. (AP) - The Vatican's top liaison to Jews helped rededicate a menorah in memory of Holocaust victims Wednesday amid fallout from the Holy See's botched decision to lift the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop.Cardinal Walter Kasper joined Holocaust survivors and local Roman Catholic leaders at the ceremony for the Yom Hashoah Menorah at the Boston Archdiocese's Braintree offices.Kasper said the ceremony was a reminder of "the most atrocious event of the last century.""No Holocaust denial, which is a new injustice to the victims, can be allowed or permitted," Kasper said."The memory must be a...memory for the future we hand down to future generations."The menorah was dedicated in 2002 at the archdiocese's former campus in Brighton, but the archdiocese recently moved to Braintree after selling its land to neighboring Boston College to relieve debt. Cardinal Sean O'Malley, the Boston archbishop, suggested the rededication ceremony in Braintree after meeting with local Jewish leaders angered by the Vatican's January decision to lift the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson.Kasper was in the area for an unrelated talk on Wednesday evening and accepted O'Malley's invitation to the event.Kasper's visit came two weeks after Pope Benedict XVI made a rare admission of Vatican mistakes in the Williamson decision, saying it could have been avoided with a better Internet search of Williamson's background.Vatican-Jewish relations already were complicated by the church's push for sainthood for Pope Pius XII, who some Jewish groups say didn't do enough to stop the Holocaust. The Holy See says Pius used quiet diplomacy during World War II to help Jews.Kasper has been blunt about the Williamson foul-up. He blamed poor communication at the Vatican and called Williamson's comments denying the Holocaust "unacceptable" and "stupid."At a press conference after the ceremony, Kasper emphasized that though Williamson's excommunication was lifted, he can't be fully restored into the church unless he renounces his views."It's absolutely clear that a Holocaust denier can't have a room, a space in the Catholic church," Kasper said.Williamson has denied 6 million Jews were killed by Nazis, saying 200,000 to 300,000 were murdered but none was gassed. Last month, he apologized for the "hurt" caused by his remarks, but he didn't recant them.The Vatican said Williamson's apology was inadequate.Auschwitz survivor Israel Arbeiter on Wednesday called on the pope to emphatically state that millions of people died in gas chambers. Arbeiter said that his parents were murdered in the chambers in the Treblinka death camp and that he saw thousands led into Auschwitz's chambers, leaving behind "only their clothing, their ashes and crushed bones.""We stand together against those who today conspire to repeat history even as they deny that very history," said Arbeiter, president of the Boston area chapter of the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors.Arbeiter was joined by his son and grandson as he lit one of six candles on the menorah, representing the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.The menorah depicts six people holding torches on a base of a cracked Star of David. A holy man with a prayer book stands in front of them, with a child to the side.The original Yom Hashoah Menorah was placed at the North American College in Vatican City in 1999. At the time, Pope John Paul II backed a proposal to place replicas of these menorahs in Catholic centers as a sign of reconciliation and to spur Holocaust study programs.The menorahs have since been placed in cities around the country, including Dallas, Miami and Baltimore.
By JAY LINDSAY--Associated Press Writer
By JAY LINDSAY--Associated Press Writer
As in the days of Noah...
