Current Affairs Cardinal Miloslav Vlk joins criticism over controversial papal pardon

Richard Williamson “Between two and three hundred thousand Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, but not one of them by gassing in gas chambers,” British bishop Richard Williamson told Swedish TV reporters. The interview was aired on January 21, the very day the Pope signed a decree lifting his excommunication. Mr Williamson along with three other bishops, members of the Saint Pius X Brotherhood, a controversial Catholic organization were excluded from the Church in 1988.

The Archbishop of Prague, Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, has joined a growing number of Catholic clergymen worldwide who have criticized the Pope over his decision, particularly the apparent lack of communication within the church itself. In a statement published on his personal website, the cardinal said there was a difference between the Pope’s intention, and the consequences of what he called a “gesture of clemency”. Aleš Pištora is the spokesman for the Prague Archbishopric.

“The cardinal considers the step to be a gesture of clemency, a gesture which should restore unity within the Church. On the other hand, he is asking whether the gesture was made with the knowledge of the possible misunderstandings. He differentiates between the intention and the goal of the gesture, and its consequences. And he is wondering whether all these consequences and possible misunderstandings were given proper thought.”

Cardinal Miloslav Vlk said he himself had fought against expressions of anti-Semitism among Czech followers of the controversial movement. He now believes that to a great extent, these views have been rooted out.

Miloslav Vlk Cardinal Vlk, who turns 77 in May, is going to tender his resignation to the Pope in March. The Cardinal first offered to resign in 2006 in line with canonical law, but Benedict XVI refused to let him go, extending his tenure by another two years.

A search has now reportedly begun inside the Catholic Church for the Cardinal’s successor with the bishops of Hradec Králové and Olomouc as well as the abbot of Prague’s Strahov Monastery as the most likely candidates.

Miloslav Vlk became the Archbishop of Prague in 1991, more than two decades after he was ordained priest. The communist authorities prevented him from exercising his ministry in the 1980s, and he was forced to make a living as a widow cleaner in Prague.

During his 17-year term at the helm of the Czech Catholic Church, one of his major ambitions was to secure the return of church property confiscated by the communist regime, which has not been fully realized to date.

Cardinal Miloslav Vlk recently told reporters he believed that the Pope would release him from his duties before his visit to the Czech Republic, planned for September this year.