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I'm a habitual line crosser that believes everything happens for a reason, but life comes with no guarantees, no time outs, no second chances, you just have to live life to the fullest. Laugh as much as you can, spend all your money, tell someone what they mean to you, tell someone off, speak out, dance in the pouring rain, hold someone's hand, comfort a friend, love the ones who treat you right, forget about the ones who don't, pig out, smile until your face hurts, be a flirt, stay up late and fall asleep watching the sun come up, don't be aftraid to take chances or fall in love . . . and most of all live in the moment, If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands. If it changes your life, let it. No one said it would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

German bishops say 'no room' for Holocaust denier in Catholicism

(CNN) -- Germany's Catholic bishops are calling for the expulsion of a former bishop, recently brought back into the church by Pope Benedict XVI, after new reports that he denies the Holocaust.

Bishop Richard Williamson, shown in a recent Swiss interview, says he'll recantonly  "if I find this proof."

Bishop Richard Williamson, shown in a recent Swiss interview, says he'll recantonly "if I find this proof."

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In statements to Spiegel Online, the Web site of the German news magazine, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch said the church should part ways with Bishop Richard Williamson, a member of an ultra-conservative group that split off after Pope John Paul II excommunicated him and three other bishops in 1988.

"Mr. Williamson is impossible and irresponsible," Zollitsch, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, told the magazine in an article published Saturday. "I now see no room for him in the Catholic Church."

The Vatican has faced criticism since Benedict lifted the excommunication of the four men January 21 and announced the move three days later. The announcement came days after a Swedish Public Television interview in which Williamson said Germany's systematic murder of millions of Jews during World War II never happened.

In the Saturday article, Spiegel quotes Williamson saying that he will not recant his theories and that he would need more evidence to believe the Holocaust really happened. Video Watch Argentines respond to ex-bishop's statements »

"If I find this proof, then I will correct myself," he said. "But that will require some time."

On Wednesday, the Vatican ordered Williamson to "distance himself" from his views "in an absolutely unequivocal and public manner."

The Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, has said Williamson will not be allowed to perform priestly functions if he does not recant. He said the pope was unaware of the comments when he rehabilitated the men.

Williamson apologized last week for the "distress" he has caused the pope but did not retract his comments.

Williamson, a Briton who now lives in Argentina, and three other bishops who belong to the Society of Saint Pius X were excommunicated by Pope John Paul II in 1988. The society was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebrve, who rebelled against the Vatican's modernizing reforms in the 1960s, and who consecrated the men in unsanctioned ceremonies.

Williamson's reinstatement and comments have been fiercely criticized by Israel, American Jewish groups and political leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

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The pope -- who was born in Germany and was a child during the Nazi era -- rejected Holocaust denial in public statements January 28.

At the end of his weekly audience that day, the pope discussed his trips to the former concentration camp at Auschwitz and the images of "the heinous slaughter of millions of Jews, the innocent victims of a blind racial and religious hatred."

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