Pope Benedict XVI says Jews are making "too big a deal" out of his decision to lift the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson, a Holocaust denier.
"Jesus," the pontiff gutturally complained in German, "these constant gripers about Roman Catholic policies aren't even in our church, and they are the very ones who nailed our savior to death on a cross."
The pope-a former Hitler Youth volunteer-challenged Jews to prove Germans killed 6-million Jews by putting out a list of all the victims. "I'll bet my jewelry and costumes there were only several hundred thousand deaths."
The Vatican said Pope Benedict's comments, "have the ring of truth because His Holiness is infallible" on all church-related controversies. "So it sets back our outreach program to Judaism a little. That's nothing," the church candidly continued, "compared to the horrible damage we did to our own religion by letting our priests become serial molesters of millions of children over many centuries, this Bishop Williamson scandal is nothing."
