I am no fan of Christopher Hitchens, but his analysis is correct here: and this is about much more then Holocaust denial.

The Pope’s Denial Problem

For decades, it has seemed that the schismatics would either end their days as lonely, cranky outsiders or else rejoin the fold. Instead, Pope Benedict XVI has now moved the Roman Catholic Church to the right in order to accommodate, and rehabilitate, those who defected. Among these is a Lefebvrist “bishop” named Richard Williamson, who doubts his own version of the facts of the Nazi Holocaust and who furthermore suspects the Bush administration of having orchestrated the events of September 11, 2001, in order to afford itself a pretext for war.

The pope’s decision to apply the principle of inclusion to these decidedly eccentric elements, organized as they are under the banner of “the Society of St. Pius X,” has upset many liberal Catholics as well as some quite conservative ones, among them George Weigel. But should we consider it as an internal affair of the Roman Catholic Church? Here is why we should not.

newsweek.com