The Curious “Hate Speech” Double Standard

By now the whole world knows that Pope Benedict XVI has lifted the “excommunications” of the four bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), that one of those bishops, Richard Williamson, has expressed views minimizing the Holocaust, and that the Superior General of the SSPX, Bishop Bernard Fellay, has repudiated those views, forbidden Williamson to speak publicly on such matters, and removed him as Rector of the SSPX seminary in Argentina.

The enemies of Catholic tradition will not, of course, be satisfied with the measures SSPX has taken to address the Bishop Williamson controversy. On the contrary, the world press — like a dog with a bone — will continue to harp on the affair in a clearly desperate bid to blackmail and browbeat the Pope into doing nothing further toward an ecclesial restoration. What the forces of “world opinion” dearly wish to see is a continuation of the disastrous “springtime” of Vatican II, which has all but neutralized the Church’s perennial opposition to Liberalism.

But while the Pope is hounded mercilessly because of the opinions of one bishop, the haters of Christ and His Church continue to revel in their endless field day of bigotry and ridicule of the Faith. Hence, as AP reports, the Vatican has just denounced “a private Israeli TV show that ridiculed and blasphemed Jesus and Mary” right in the midst of the tempest the media has excited over Bishop Williamson’s views. As AP reports (February 20, 2009), the host of the program, Lior Shlein, a professional comedian of some sort, “farcically denied Christian traditions — that Mary was a virgin and that Jesus walked on water — saying he would do so as a ‘lesson’ to Christians who deny the Holocaust.”

This “comedian,” whose remarks were broadcast on Channel 10, one of Israel’s three main TV stations, then proceeded to cast slurs on the virginity of Mary and to deny that Jesus could have walked on water because He was “so fat he was ashamed to leave the house, let alone go to the Sea of Galilee with a bathing suit.” These despicable blasphemies were accompanied by blasphemous images I will not even describe.

SSPX has taken measures to make amends for any offense caused by Bishop Williamson’s remarks, which have nothing to do with the Faith. But what measures will the haters of Christ and His Church who produced and participated in Channel 10’s blasphemies take to repair the insult they have inflicted on Catholics around the world, especially those who live in the Holy Land? Indeed, what remedy do Catholics anywhere have for the worldwide torrent of mockery and abuse directed daily at their Church and its Founder?

Like most of the devices by which Liberalism secures its tyranny over the “modern world,” the condemnation of “hate speech” is a one-way street whose only beneficiaries are, of course, Liberals. No matter what one thinks about the Bishop Williamson affair, Catholics should speak as one in opposition to this pernicious double standard of what our Pope rightly calls “the dictatorship of relativism.” The honor of Our Lord and Our Lady demand nothing less than a Catholic outcry for justice in this matter. Mr. Shlein and Channel 10 must recant and apologize for Shlein’s hateful remarks.