Lifting an excommunication is not a pardon of all crimes. People are excommunicated for creating a schism or promoting a heresy, not sinning. They haven't even excommunicated left wing politicans for supporting abortion, even though that is actively perpetuating a crime that is happening currently, rather than denying one that happened in the past.
Angela Merkel rebukes Pope in Holocaust row
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, became the first world leader yesterday to condemn Pope Benedict XVI over his rehabilitation of an ultra-conservative British bishop who denies that Jews died in the Nazi Holocaust.
Ms Merkel called on the German Pope to reject publicly the views of Bishop Richard Williamson, who has denied that six million Jews were gassed in Nazi concentration camps. In a highly unusual rebuke to the Pope she said that she did not believe there had been “sufficient” clarification.
“This should not be allowed to pass without consequences,” Ms Merkel, daughter of a Lutheran pastor, said. “The Pope and the Vatican should clarify unambiguously that there can be no denial and that there must be positive relations with the Jewish community overall.” ...
He said that there had been too little internal discussion of the Pope’s reinstatement of the arch-conservative followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, and a failure to foresee the row that followed. Cardinal Kasper told Vatican radio: “There have certainly been errors in the way the Curia \ handled this.” He added that the reinstatement of the four bishops was far from complete.
The followers of Marcel Lefebvre, who rejected the modernising reforms of the Second Vatican Council, were excommunicated after being ordained by him without authorisation from Rome, and formed the breakaway Society of St Pius X (SSPX). Cardinal Kasper said that the Pope had wanted to bring them back into the fold to reinforce the unity of the Church.
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