POPE EMBRACES HOLOCAUST DENIER
Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 11:27AM 
Disappointing to read that in an attempt to heal a two-decade old church schism, Pope Benedict XVI has lifted the excommunications of four bishops, including one who is a notorious Holocaust denier.
Richard Williamson, a British bishop, was shown in a Swedish state TV interview this week saying that historical evidence "is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed." Williamson has said that only 200,000-300,000 Jews died during World War II and that gas chambers were a fiction. He has also endorsed the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious anti-Semitic forgery used since the late 19th century to fuel anti-Jewish violence, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Well, now Williamson is back in favour. Shame on the Pontiff or those who advised him to do this.
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Reader Comments (149)
It boogles the mind why he felt that bringing this one back into the fold made sense. Especially if he allows him back in as a Bishop.
There seems to be a bit of spin going on here David. The story is about an internal difference in theology regarding Vatican II, nothing to do with the man's views on the holocaust.
It's surprising you think his private views on a non-religious subject should make him a candidate for ex-communication !
The Catholic church have a history of helping and collaborating with the Nazis. The present Pope is a former member of Hitler youth and one that guesstimate that he has, at least, some sympathy for the cause.
Evidence such as this only supports that assertion.
One of the comments above makes the point well: the man was not excommunicated for holocaust denial - that is not grounds for excommunication by any manner of means - nor is his excommunication being lifted for anything remotely of that nature.
It's quite simply lazy and/or ridiculous to suggest otherwise: his membership of the Roman Catholic church has nothing to do with his views on history, nor are they views which the church endorses.
Guba
Not sure you can make that correlation. The assassination attempt on Hitler was carried out by a man who continued to act in Hitler's regime and support it up to a point eg when immoral positions were taken regards the Jews. He was also a devout catholic.
That is not to say that catholics generally don't have weirdo issues: bloody regimes for Jews in Spain, intolerance to all but their own under Queen Mary, a free pass to a certain kind of priestly desire for children and newly obsessive regulations over women's bodies in the 60s kind of thing.
David
As has been stated, I don't think that this is a likely valid reason for excomunicating anyone, unless holocaust denial is cited in the rules.
Does no longer being excommunicated equate to back in favour?
It's not like that have made a saint as they did to Thomas More. That was shameful.
He has merely lifted the excommunication Williamson inter alia incurred lata sententiae for illicitly receiving episcopal orders without a papal mandate. The SSPX is still without canonical recognition, as it was suppressed in 1975. Bishop Williamson is still suspended a divinis. He has no jurisdiction, and never will. He is not even permitted to celebrate Mass!
Why is he still a member of the Church?
Nobody can kick him out of the Church for denying the holocaust. It isn't an excommunicatable offence. +Lefebvre made a bad mistake consecrating him in the first place.
It is interesting that a former member of the Hitler Youth, would do this. The Catholic Church collaborated with the Nazis - particularly those who were involved in the holocaust - and brought them to safety.
the Catholic Church also actively engaged in the killing of Jews in Croatia. It is entirely probable that the Church still has alliances with Nazi organizations today. It's leader, after all, is a former supporter of the cause.
The Catholic Church's major two hobbies of the last century have been raping children and killing Jews.
If i do meet Saint whatever on judgment day, i will tell him, proudly, that i did not buy into any of this crap.
It was also actively engaged in the killing of Jews when Ireland was busy embracing it. But you quite liked catholics then Guba!
Guba,
"The Catholic Church collaborated with the Nazis - particularly those who were involved in the holocaust - and brought them to safety."
Eh? The Catholic Church, like many other European organisations at that time, didn't exactly cover itself in glory. But collaborating with the Nazis?!!!
I think your anti-clericalism is blinding you on this one.
As the other commentators have pointed out, Williamson was not excommunicated for Holocaust denial. He should be roundly condemned for it but he can't be excommunicated for it
Guba, his Holiness was a former member of the Hitler Youth when it became compulsary to join the Hitler Youth. His Holiness wanted to attend a seminary school and in order to do this he had to gain a reference. In order to do this he had to join the Hitler Youth.
Your anti-Catholic bigotry is appauling.
As a Catholic I think this is an unwise and frankly shameful act from a pope who has proved to be everything we thought he would be. Reactionary, intolerant and dogmatic. His recent pronouncements on homosexuality and now this - the man is shaping up to be worst pope since Pius XII - a previous Vicar of Christ with a rather doubtful relationship to the Nazis
Jaz, Holocaust Denial is not a crime in most civilised countries. It's just considered stupid. It is also not an offence punishable by excommunication. There are only a few crimes punishable by excommunication. They are
1) apostasy
2) damaging the Eucharistic or using it for sacreligious purposes
3) attacking the Pope
4) ordaining someone without a papal mandate
5) violation of confessionial secrecy
6) having an abortion
7) interference in a papal election or violation of its secrecy
8) a woman who has been ordained as a priest
9) and anyone who help those who carry out any of the above, so a person who ordains a woman as a priest is excommunicated on two grounds, ordanation without a papal mandate and helping a woman become a priest. A person who helps a woman have an abortion (which is used to excommunicate Pro-Abortion Politicians, like John Kerry) is also excommunicated.
Holocaust denial is not a crime punishable by excommunication. Bishop Williamson was excommunicated because he ordained someone without Papal Mandate. If his Grace observed the penance for his crime then his excommunication becomes void.
Jaz, you are not a Catholic. Catholicism is necessarily dogmatic. .
And your charge that Pope Pius XII had "a rather doubtful relationship with Jews" is ridiculous slander. The Chief Rabbi of Rome changed his name to Eugenio to honour the Pope for his efforts in helping persecuted Jews, including his ordering of convents and seminaries to hide them, his authoring of false baptismal certs to help them emigrate and his pressuring Argentina to issue them visas. The Chief Rabbi of Ireland at the time, Yitzhak Halevi Herzog (who later become Israel's first Chief Rabbi) wrote an op-ed in the Irish Times thanking the Pope for his efforts in helping persecuted Jews. The New York Times (then owned by a Jew) editorialized on Christmas Day 1941:
The Pope’s Message
The voice of Pius XII is a lonely voice in the silence and darkness enveloping Europe this Christmas. The Pope reiterates what he has said before. In general, he repeats, although with greater definiteness, the five-point plan for peace which he first enunciated in his Christmas message after the war broke out in 1939. His program agrees in fundamentals with the Roosevelt-Churchill eight-point declaration. It calls for respect for treaties and the end of the possibility of aggression, equal treatment for minorities, freedom from religious persecution. It goes farther than the Atlantic Charter in advocating an end of all national monopolies of economic wealth, and so far as the eight points, which demands complete disarmament for Germany pending some future limitation of arms for all nations.
The Pontiff emphasized principles of international morality with which most men of good-will agree. He uttered the ideas a spiritual leader would be expected to express in time of war. Yet his words sound strange and bold in the Europe of today, and we comprehend the complete submergence and enslavement of great nations, the very sources of our civilization, as we realize that he is about the only ruler left o the Continent of Europe who dares to raise his voice at all. The last tiny islands of neutrality are so hemmed in and overshadowed by war and fear that no one but the Pope is still able to speak aloud in the name of the Prince of Peace. This is indeed a measure of the "moral devastation" he describes as the accompaniment of physical ruin and inconceivable human suffering.
In calling for a "real new order" based on "liberty, justice and love," to be attained only by a "return to social and international principles capable of creating a barrier against the abuse of liberty and the abuse of power," the Pope put himself squarely against Hitlerism. Recognizing that there is no road open to agreement between belligerents "whose reciprocal war aims and programs seem to be irreconcilable," he left no doubt that the Nazi aims are also irreconcilable with his own conception of a Christian peace. "The new order which must arise out of this war," he asserted, "must be based on principles." And that implies only one end to the war.
Quotes from the New York Times during WW2:
"If the Pope in his Christmas message had intended to condemn Hitler's system, he could not have done it more effectively than by describing the 'moral order' which must govern human society." (editorial, December 25, 1940)
*
"The voice of Pius XII is a lonely voice in the silence and darkness enveloping Europe this Christmas." (editorial, December 25, 1941)
*
Catholic Church leaders "are virtually the only Germans still speaking up against the Nazi regime." (news article, June 8, 1942)
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"This Christmas more than ever he [Pius XII] is a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent." (editorial, December 25, 1942)
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Vatican Radio is quoted saying, "He who makes a distinction between Jews and other men is unfaithful to God and is in conflict with God's commands." (news article, June 27, 1943)
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Commenting on the 1,200 German priests interned at Dachau, the Times says, "The arrests are linked with strong anti-Nazi and anti-war movements in the predominantly Roman Catholic section of Germany." (news article, August 13, 1943)
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Remarking on the German bishops' pastoral letter condemning Hitler (which ended by thanking Pius for his leadership), the Times says, "The letter abounds in sly but fearless thrusts at the false god and Nazi tenets." (news article, September 6, 1943)
*
When a Soviet house organ tries to tag the Vatican pro-Nazi, the Times goes ballistic: "Of all the incendiary literary bombs manufactured in Moscow…and thrown with such lighthearted recklessness into the unity of Allied nations, none is likely to do greater damage than Izvestia's unjust and intemperate attack upon the Vatican as 'pro-Fascist.'" (editorial, February 4, 1944)
*
After Rome was liberated, the chief Rabbi of Rome, Israele Anton Zolli, formally expressed the gratitude of Roman Jews "for all the moral and material aid the Vatican gave them during the Nazi occupation." (news article, July 27, 1944)
*
When the war ended, the Times ran many stories detailing the praise that Jewish leaders bestowed on Pius. Included was the one which recorded a gift of $20,000 to the Vatican by the World Jewish Congress "in recognition of the work of the Holy See in rescuing Jews from Fascist and Nazi persecution." (news article, October 11, 1945)
Sir Martin Gilbert, the noted European historian, recently said that the test for Pius "was when the Gestapo came to Rome in 1943 to round up the Jews." Gilbert writes, "And the Catholic Church, on his direct authority, immediately dispersed as many Jews as they could."
Jaz, you also suggest that his Holiness is shaping up to be the worst Pope in a long time because he believes in the teachings of the Catholic Church and you don't. The Catholic Church has a specific teaching on homosexuality, on abortion, on women priests. If you don't like it or can't accept that, find a new faith. The Catholic Church should not change to be acceptable to its opponents.
http://www.catholicleague.org/pius/truth.htm
Albert Einstein -- "Being a lover of freedom, when the Nazi revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, but the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, but they, like the universities were silenced in a few short weeks. Then I looked to individual writers . . . . they too were mute. Only the Church," Einstein concluded, "stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing the truth. . . . I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel great affection and admiration . . . . and am forced thus to confess that what I once despised, I now praise unreservedly."
In September 1945, Dr. Joseph Nathan who represented the Hebrew Commission stated "Above all, we acknowledge the Supreme Pontiff and the religious men and women who, executing the directives of the Holy Father, recognized the persecuted as their brothers and, with great abnegation, hastened to help them, disregarding the terrible dangers to which they were exposed."
In 1958, at the death of Pope Pius XII, Golda Meir sent an eloquent message: "We share in the grief of humanity. When fearful martyrdom came to our people, the voice of the Pope was raised for its victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out about great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of peace."
Robert Kempner, the American who served as deputy chief of the Nuremburg war-crimes tribunal, wrote: "All the arguments and writings eventually used by the Catholic Church against Hitler only provoked suicide; the execution of Jews was followed by that of Catholic priests."
# The foremost Jewish Scholar of the Holocaust at its height in Hungary, Jeno Levai, insisted some years ago that it was a "particularly regrettable irony that the one person in all of occupied Europe who did more than anyone else to halt the dreadful crime and alleviate its consequences is today made the scapegoat for the failures of others."
# The Israeli diplomat and scholar Pinchas Lapide concluded his careful review of Pius XII’s wartime activities with the following words: "The Catholic Church under the pontificate of Pius XII was instrumental in saving lives of as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands." He went on to add that this "figure far exceeds those saved by all other Churches and rescue organizations combined." After recounting statements of appreciation from a variety of preeminent Jewish spokespersons, he noted. "No Pope in history has been thanked more heartily by Jews . . . .Several suggested in open letters that a Pope Pius XII forest of 860,000 trees be planted on the hills of Judea in order to fittingly honor the memory of the late Pontiff ("Three Popes and the Jews" pp. 214–215)." Levai in his own book did not hesitate to argue that the attacks on the Pope’s wartime record are "demonstrably malicious and fabricated . . . . The archives of the Vatican of diocesan authorities of Ribbentrop’s foreign ministry, contain a whole series of protests—direct and indirect, diplomatic and public, secret and open. The nuncios and bishops of the Catholic Church intervened again and again on the instructions of the Pope," he wrote. Their interventions were just as unsuccessful as the demands and threats of the British and American governments. Moreover, the delicacy of the matter was often heightened by the fact that such protests could put Jews themselves and their protectors at additional corporal risk.
# Hungarian Jews and the Papacy: The former chief rabbi of Rome during the German occupation, Emilio Zolli, concluded his firsthand account of wartime events thus: "Volumes could be written on the multiform works of Pius XII, and the countless priests, religious and laity who stood with him throughout the world during the war." "No hero," he said, "in all of history was more militant, more fought against, none more heroic, than Pius XII in pursuing the works of true charity . . . and thus on behalf of all the suffering children of God." Zolli was so moved by Pius XII’s work that he became a Catholic after the war and took the Pope’s name (Before the Dawn). Lapide acknowledged in his book that the Church "in an endless flood of sermons, allocutions, pastoral letters and encyclicals was a clear and unrelenting foe to all forms of racism at the time, and everyone knew it—Jews, Poles, Russians and most ominously the Nazi secret police." Their files mention recalcitrant Catholic clergy in this regard more than any other group.
# The New York Times in its Christmas editorials of 1941 and 1942 praised Pius XII for his moral leadership as a "lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent" and for, among other things, assailing "the violent occupation of territory, and the exile and persecution of human beings, for no other reason than race." No other institution produced more heroes during the Holocaust than the Church: Italian, Slovak, French, Hungarian priests, nuns, and laypersons who risked and often gave their lives for the sake of persecuted Jews. This too deserves remembrance and respect.
# Golda Meir, Israel’s representative to the United Nations, was the first of the delegates to react to the news of Pope Pius XII’s death. She sent an eloquent message: "We share in the grief of humanity at the passing away of His Holiness, Pope Pius XII. In a generation afflicted by wars and discords he upheld the highest ideals of peace and compassion. When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for its victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out about great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of peace."
# Leonard Bernstein, on learning of Pope Pius XII’s death while conducting his orchestra in New York’s Carnegie Hall, tapped his baton for a moment of silence to pay tribute to the Pope who had saved the lives of so many people without distinction of race, nationality, or religion.
Anon:
i am not proud of Ireland's catholic past, but the average Catholic was not organising the killing of Jews, that was the Catholic hierarchy. I blame the virus (the Church) not the victims.
'But collaborating with the Nazis?'
Take a look at Croatia and the infamous ratlines.
Seamus:
He could have refused to join and fight with the resistance. Also, i would not have went to the Nazis for a reference. Personal advancement should not come at the expense of personal integrity.
Nothing compared to the bigotry and horror this fictitious Church has put my people through for centuries. What they have done and are doing should not be forgotten.
In fact, Pope Pius XII personally assisted the Zionist cause.
http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2008/02/pius-xii-assist.html
It was in fact Protestant areas who voted for Nazis:
http://cathcon.blogspot.com/2007/07/catholics-fiercest-anti-nazis-in-pre.html
Wow - touched on a raw nerve there - haven't seen such a flurry of cutting and pasting for, ooo, days.
I should have been more careful in my post. I was *born* a Catholic and went through all that confirmation and communion stuff. But long ago I saw it for what it is.
I might also state that the founder of the SSPX and the bishop who consecrated Williamson, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, lost his father to the Nazis. He worked for the French Resistance and British intelligence as a spy. He risked his life a number of times helping Nazi detainees escape to London, but unfortunately he was caught and later sent to a concentration camp, where he died.
It's simple really, what the Pope shows (again), is that he is far more charitable than his critics.
And on a less charitable note (Guba?), you said - "Also, i would not have went to"
Excuse me, but that is illiterate, and hardly an oversight I would think.
"I was *born* a Catholic"
No, you were born an atheist. Unless of course you had religious instruction while still in the womb.
Maybe you were baptized a Catholic....
Orlando:
'Also, i would not have went to the Nazis for a reference.'
I do not know what language you are allegedlly literate in, but that sentence is perfectly readable in the English language.
It is interesting that the Pope is charitable to a Nazi sympathizer and not at all charitable to homosexuals and child-abuse victims.
He is disgusting and his church is disgusting. He must have enjoyed his job moving around pervert priests to get new victims and hiding them from authorities. I'm sure he got kicks out of his early job as a Nazi too.
Aodh Óg - Pedantry is not an attractive trait.
"i am not proud of Ireland's catholic past, but the average Catholic was not organising the killing of Jews, that was the Catholic hierarchy. I blame the virus (the Church) not the victims."
I am. There are certain elements of Ireland's Catholic past that are shameful, like the Megdalen laundries, and the sex abuse scandal, but the Catholic Church in Ireland has a proud, proud history. I am proud of Ireland's Catholic past, I am proud of Ireland's Catholic present and I will be proud of Ireland's Catholic future.
"Take a look at Croatia and the infamous ratlines."
If we are being pedantic, which you are being, they actually collaborated with the Ustasi rather than the Nazis.
"He could have refused to join and fight with the resistance. Also, i would not have went to the Nazis for a reference. Personal advancement should not come at the expense of personal integrity."
The Nazis were not deemed to be all that evil or bad in 1941. His Holiness joined the Hitler Youth and looked for a reference in 1941, before the Holocuast had even started. Also, it is easy to say that "personal advancement should not come at the expense of personal integrity". Would you have gone to your death just to protest at the injustices of a regime?
Also, in Germany, in 1941, there wasn't that much of a resistence to speak of. The biggest act of resistence inside Germany were a few isolated plots, not against the regime, but against Hitler himself. In 1941, the horror of the regime was unknown to the population. In 1941, Germans were proud to be Germans because they had just defeated the old enemy. They were the most powerful country in the world. You would have been a Nazi then.
"Nothing compared to the bigotry and horror this fictitious Church has put my people through for centuries. What they have done and are doing should not be forgotten."
Well, I am a part of the same people as you are. The Catholic Church has instituted bigotry and horror in Ireland?
Also, what are the Church doing now that is evil and horror filled and shouldn't be forgoten?
"It is interesting that the Pope is charitable to a Nazi sympathizer and not at all charitable to homosexuals and child-abuse victims."
Firstly, a Holocaust denier is simply that, a Holocaust denier. It doesn't indicate any sympathy to the Nazi cause. Secondly, if a child-abuse victim was excommunicated and then repented their reason for being excommunicated, then I would imagine that they would be recommunicated.
I cannot think of anything proud or even memorable that they achieved here. They were paid by the taxpayers to care for our children and sick. They used this as an opportunity to torture and rape. What good did they actually do?
Catholicism is dying in Ireland; hopefully it will continue its downfall.
"Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest." --Emile Zola
It depends what you mean by 'sll that evil or bad'. Fascism and anti-semitism were, in my humble opinion, regarded as pretty bad. The Catholic Church was, of course, in full support of fascism. It thrived in Catholic countries.
Where did the German's think all the Jews had gone? Why did they knick all of their stuff? it is almost as if the Germans thought the Jews weren't coming back.
'Well, I am a part of the same people as you are. The Catholic Church has instituted bigotry and horror in Ireland?'
You mentioned much of it earlier in your post.
AO
"No, you were born an atheist. Unless of course you had religious instruction while still in the womb.
"
He wasn't born an atheist either, even if he had been given teachings in the womb he wouldn't have been able to assimilate them to the extend of having the postive belief in the non existance of God ;o)
The lifting of the excommunications is an important step is the restoration of tradition in the church. Williamson is known to be opposed to reconciliation and by again expressing this discredited opinion he was probably trying to block the process.
There are one million Catholics including myself who attend the traditional Mass in the chapels of the SSPX. There was no way the Pope was going to be defected from doing the right thing for so many simply because one tried to block it.
Williamson is now isolated and discredited. Of course he has given a gift to the enemies of the Church and comfort to the deniers of history. But to the Jews I would say look at your most dangerous enemies today. You need a strong Catholic Church in the dark decades ahead and that means a traditional church.
The KGB and its lackeys in the west ran a campaign against Pope Pius XII as a means of attacking the Catholic Church which, at the time, was a mainstay of dissident movements in the Catholic countries under the communist yoke. Naturally, the campaign gained strength after Pius's death because he was no longer present to dispute the charges of collaboration with nazism.
Whatever disputes we in the UK and NI may have with the Catholic Church in Ireland (several clerics support(ed?) the IRA - Seamus?), the fact is that the CC is a pillar of the west and seeing those who are attacking the Pope reminds one of who our current enemies are. It is no crime to deny the Holocaust, and rightly so because it is important that people with such views come into the open rather than spreading their toxic views from under the stone which hides them.
"He wasn't born an atheist either, even if he had been given teachings in the womb he wouldn't have been able to assimilate them to the extend of having the postive belief in the non existance of God ;o"
And that would be what is known as 'strong atheism'. 'Weak atheism' is defined as the lack of belief in god(s).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weak_and_strong_atheism
http://atheism.about.com/od/atheismquestions/a/strong_weak.htm
@Henry94
Where do you attend the SSPX Mass? I used to go to it in Dún Laoghaire.
AO
I don't accept that any "ism" is about a lack of belief in anything. Ism implies a belief/philosophy/value system ,even if the belief is in the absence of something.
Aileen:
I suppose technically a Child would be an atheist, because they do not, as far as i am aware, have any inherent belief in a God. They do not believe in double entry book-keeping either.
The traditional Catholic Church was no friend of the Jews. They killed many more Jews than the Arabs ever have.
Actually, Guba, if we are going to label a child, it wouldn't be atheist, it would be gnostic. They don't know. Atheists believe that their isn't a God. They have come to a certain conclusion. Believers believe there is a God. They have also came to a certain conclusion. If you don't know, then you are best described as Gnostic.
Aodh og
Conaim i gCorcaigh.
Seamus, remember, it is not atheists who want to label children, but the Church.
A child lacks believe in a God; they are, therefore, atheists. Children are not 'ify' on the issue. They are unaware of the issue. They are unaware of the concept and idea of a God.
Guba, atheism is not a lack of a believe in a God. Atheism is a believe that there is no God. Children just don't know. They are thus Gnostic.
I feel I am in the midst of saints and scholars!
Agus cé hé an tsagairt ann? Athair Agles?
Bless you David :o)
I would say that atheism is the abscence of belief in a God. There is no evidence that God exists, therefore, i do not hold that belief. Were there evidence, i would belief.
Agnosticism: 'One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God.'
New born babies are not even aware of the concept of God. They cannot therefore hold a belief that feels it impossible to know if he exists or not.
I thought Gnostic was a spiritualist Christian sect? What is the definition you are refering to?
Yeah, I fucked up the spelling between Agnostic and Gnostic. I write as I speak and they both sound the same.
In my opinion, Atheism is a belief system. A belief in no God. Atheists are atheists because atheism makes most sense to them. Religious people are religious because religion makes most sense to them. A new born child fits neither bill.
'Atheists are atheists because atheism makes most sense to them.'
Well, i would disagree. Atheists do not chose to be atheists because it makes most sense to them. An atheist is unable to belief in a God because it is not supported by evidence), whether it makes more sense to them or not.
Technically, a child would be an atheist. They do not believe in God. In order to be an agnostic, you must have some idea of the concept of a God.
Guba, children are unaware of God, they don't make a choice not to believe in him, like Atheists do.
Indeed Seamus, children must be taught, but atheists have heard of God and have rejected Him.
'children are unaware of God' If you are unaware of a concept, how can you belief in it? One can equally say that Children do not believe in God.
As i said, atheism is not a choice. Belief in God is irrational, therefore, one cannot believe in God. Whether one has never heard of God or learns that it is irrational (whether they chose to or not) they are atheists. They hold no belief in Gods.
Insert "belief in GW is irrational, therefore, one cannot believe in GW."