NOTE FROM JOHN: This is how bad this Pope, and this Vatican, are - they've made it increasingly unclear exactly where they stand on the Holocaust.
Rightly so.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Pope Benedict XVI to make a "very clear" rejection of Holocaust denials after the Vatican's rehabilitation of a former bishop who questioned whether 6 million Jews were gassed by the Nazis.
Merkel's rare and public demand came amid increasing outrage among Germany's Roman Catholic leaders over the pope's decision to lift the excommunication of British-born Richard Williamson.
Merkel said she "does not believe" there has been adequate clarification of the Vatican's position on the Holocaust amid the controversy.
Benedict last week expressed "full and indisputable solidarity" with Jews and warned against any denial of the horror of the Holocaust, but several leading German bishops have decried the decision and called for the rehabilitation to be revoked.
"I do not believe that sufficient clarification has been made," Merkel said.
The Vatican moved quickly to counter Merkel's suggestion.
"The pope's thinking on the subject of the Holocaust has been expressed very clearly," said Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi.
