Bishop Bernard Fellay took direct aim at the Jewish community recently, urging us to leave Catholics “in peace.” In particular, the head of the Society for St. Pius X asked Jews to stay out of intra-Catholic disputes, referencing two recent ones: the Tridentine Mass, or Good Friday Liturgy and the Bishop Williamson affair.

On the Mass, Bishop Fellay has a friend in the OU. We have long held Jews and Christians should not be in the business of telling one another what to believe or how to practice their own faith.

As for the affaire d’Williamson, this just doesn’t pass any credible test: “red faced,” smell or otherwise. This is no internal Church dispute, not least of which because the Bishop made the comments on Swedish TV. Bishop Williamson’s public comments denying the Holocaust have nothing to do with Catholic liturgy, ritual or doctrine. They may or may not have anything to do with rank, base anti-Semitism. But without question, they are a denial of historical truth.

Friends can disagree. But friendship can’t abide lies. Or as a good American Catholic, the late Senator Pat Moynihan liked to say, you’re entitled to your own opinion, just not your own facts.

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