Vatican moves to clear Judas’ name

Actually, it's not the Vatican but the head of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Science...And, we can't even be certain if the story is accurately presented.

From Ynetnews:

Proposed ‘rehabilitation’ of the man who was paid 30 pieces of silver to identify Jesus to Roman soldiers in the Garden of Gethsemane, comes on the ground that he was not deliberately evil, but was just ‘fulfilling his part in God’s plan, the London Times reports.

Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss, is to be given a makeover by Vatican scholars, according to the London Times.
...
According to the London Times, a campaign led by Monsignor Walter Brandmuller, head of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Science, is aimed at persuading believers to look kindly at a man reviled for 2,000 years.

Mgr Brandmuller told fellow scholars it was time for a “re-reading” of the Judas story. He is supported by Vittorio Messori, a prominent Catholic writer close to both Pope Benedict XVI and the late John Paul II.

Signor Messori said that the rehabilitation of Judas would “resolve the problem of an apparent lack of mercy by Jesus toward one of his closest collaborators.”

He told La Stampa that there was a Christian tradition that held that Judas was forgiven by Jesus and ordered to purify himself with “spiritual exercises” in the desert.

Seems Judas, while undertaking self mortification with a rope around his neck, slipped accidentally. Evidently it seems, Jesus was probably mistaken when He said it would have better for him had he not been born...

One can only ask, who's next? Frankly, this seems to be an exercise in futility.

Mgr Brandmuller said that he expected “no new historical evidence” from the supposed gospel, which had been excluded from the canon of accepted Scripture.

But it could “serve to reconstruct the events and context of Christ’s teachings as they were seen by the early Christians.” This included that Jesus had always preached “forgiveness for one’s enemies.”

Historical revisionism at its finest...

Some Vatican scholars have expressed concern over the reconsideration of Judas. Monsignor Giovanni D’Ercole, a Vatican theologian, said it was “dangerous to re-evaluate Judas and muddy the Gospel accounts by reference to apocryphal writings. This can only create confusion in believers.”

And we certainly do not need any more confusion!

Hopefully, Monsignor D'Ercole and others will prevail before others succeed in promoting (as Dan Brown and others) more of the gnostic writings and the sainthood of Judas and confusing already confused Christians and others. Any study of this kind would best be done in private, away from the prying eyes of the media.

Source.