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Exámenes Baleares Alemán Resueltos

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Sous le sable - EOI francés A2

Drame réalisé par François OZON

Synopsis:

Marie et Jean sont un couple aisé avec derrière eux vingt-cinq ans de vie commune. Chaque été, ils partent en vacances dans les Landes et rejoignent leur maison de campagne.

Pourtant, cette année, il semble se passer quelque chose de particulier : le couple ne se parle pas et Jean s'enferme dans un mutisme inquiétant.

Un après-midi, alors que Marie s´assoupit* sur la plage, Jean s'éclipse après être parti se baigner. À son réveil, la femme ne voit pas son mari, ni au loin, ni au large**. Elle comprend. Il a disparu.

S'est-il noyé ? S'est-il enfui ? Il n'y a aucune certitude puisque les garde-côtes ne retrouveront pas le corps. Marie s'en retourne seule, avec les affaires de Jean dans son sac.

Les mois passent, la vie continue comme s'il ne s'était rien passé mais Jean est plus présent que jamais auprès de Marie qui se refuse à croire qu'il s'en est allé...

D’après le site Cinéma : www.cinema-français.fr

A talent for spying - EOI Islas Baleares inglés C2 resuelto

The publication of the history of MI6 reveals the British gift for espionage. The concept of an authorised history of a secret agency, which did not officially exist until 1992, is slippery, to say the least. The publication of Professor Keith Jeffery’s MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909 – 1949, is notable for the very fact of its existence as well as the secrets that it reveals. It also invites a much broader question. Why is British identity so bound up with espionage and subterfuge? Have the British made unusually good spies, and if so, do they continue to do so in today’s very different diplomatic environment?
MI6 began with a mistake. ―We went to the office and remained there all day but saw no one, nor was there anything to do‖. That was the verdict of Mansfield Cumming in 1909 after his first day at work as head of the foreign section of the new Secret Service Bureau, the agency that later became the Secret Intelligence Service (or MI6). For once there was simple explanation: Cumming had accidentally started work a week early.
That inauspicious start quickly gave way to serious victories. La Dame Blanche, the most successful intelligence network of the First World War, orchestrated 880 men and women working behind enemy lines. During the operation to penetrate occupied France and Germany in the Second World War, an agent’s average life expectancy was three weeks. An incalculable debt is owed to the bravery of those men and women.
But even armed with the evidence of this book, taking measure of MI6 is unusually difficult. First, although MI6 has opened up in recent years (it now has a more conventional recruitment process than the donnish tap on the shoulder) it remains much more secretive than its sister agency MI5. Second, Mr Jeffrey’s evidence covers only 1909- 1949 – perhaps because it stops just short of the most embarrassing era in MI6’s history. In 1951, a Cambridge spy ring was exposed, in which double agents such as Kim Philby had betrayed British state secrets in the service of the Soviet Union.
That MI6 was once so dominated by Oxbridge and the public schools exposes both the genius and the fault line in British intelligence. The British class and education system, by honing the ability to hide real feelings beneath charm and polish, made for natural spies. Charm, in Evelyn Waugh’s phrase, ―is the English disease‖. But the ability to say one thing while feeling another has practical benefits. ―For the British it could be said that the inclination to deceive is already available as a natural asset,‖ concluded one American intelligence chief. Indeed, the United States did not even have a secret service until 1942.
In recent decades, MI6 has been accused of being slow to adapt. The absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq undeniably tarnished its reputation. And MI6 was influenced by America’s overreliance on high-tech intercepts, rather than face-to-face human intelligence. But 9/11 showed that high-tech systems can only augment traditional intelligence, never replace it.
MI6 has continued to punch above its weight. Oleg Gordievsky’s defection was a Cold War triumph. And Libya’s decision to abandon its nuclear programme in 2003 owed much to MI6’s relationships, its agents’ ability to persuade. When it comes to human intelligence, it remains the case that nobody does it better. 

Adapted from The Times, August 2010.

Krise in Südeuropa Italiener stürmen Deutsch-Kurse - Alemán B1 EOI Baleares

Online-Übungen für Deutsch als Fremdsprache

Tausende Italiener büffeln1 plötzlich Deutsch. Die Sprache Goethes galt lange als schwer und wenig nützlich. Doch nun locken in Goethes Heimat, nördlich der Alpen, Jobs und Geld. Für Auswanderungswillige ein guter Grund, sich mit der für sie schwierigen Grammatik zu beschäftigen.

„Es wird immer schlimmer“, sagt Massimo. Die Kommune2 in Italien, für die der selbständige Handwerker arbeitet, sind quasi pleite. Sie zahlen Massimos Rechnungen mit monatelanger Verspätung. Manchmal dauert es ein Jahr, bis er sein Geld bekommt. Er aber muss Material, Steuern und Abgaben immer sofort bezahlen, oft auf Kredit.

Massimo hat keine Lust mehr auf Italien, er sucht sein Glück im Norden. „Ick gehe nack Deutscheland“, sagt Massimo. In der Nähe von Ulm hat Massimo Verwandte, da will er hin, da will er arbeiten und mehr Geld verdienen als daheim. Ein kleines Problem gibt es noch: Er muss Deutsch lernen. „Das sär schwierige“, stöhnt er. Aber er werde es schon schaffen.

So wie Massimo bemühen sich im Moment Tausende von Italienern, junge wie ältere, eine Sprache zu lernen, deren Grammatik ihnen ebenso schwer fällt wie die zungen-, lippen- und halsbrecherische Aussprache. Worte wie „Schleswig-Holstein“ oder „Bordsteinkante“ können sie einfach nicht richtig sagen. Und der in Italien immer noch vergötterte Formel-1-Pilot Michael Schumacher wird selbst von den Experten im italienischen Fernsehen „Skumaker“ genannt.

Reality TV - EOI Islas Baleares inglés B1 resuelto

There's a new kind of programme on television, and it's hardly like television at all! It's called reality TV and, as the name suggests, it is supposed to show us something very real. The participants aren't actors at all, but ordinary people in their daily lives. We, the viewers, might see them eating, sleeping, arguing or having a good time. We can hear all their conversations and watch their every move. Reality shows, therefore, are not regular television programmes at all. Instead they give us a close-up look into other people's lives. 

Why have reality shows become so popular? What makes us want to watch reality shows on TV? To begin with, we feel that we get to know the participants. We know their names from the beginning and gradually we learn more about them. We might even come to like some of them. Others, we might not like at all! Reality shows take us inside the lives of other people. Mostly, people wonder what it's like to be someone else. Experiencing other people's lives can be a great escape from our own. 

Some people say this has a very healthy effect on society and it's a harmless and entertaining way of passing the time. Other people, however, are not in favour of reality TV. Critics say that it is not really entertainment at all. What could be entertaining about two people doing their laundry or preparing the evening meal? Who wants to watch that? Who wants to hear all of their secrets and gossip? Some social scientists even say that reality TV could have damaging effects on society. 

What kinds of people take part in reality programmes? Well, since the participants may win a prize, they might be doing it for the money. There could be other reasons as well. For example, the participants on these shows become well known to the viewers. They may even become famous and find more work in TV after the reality show ends. Not only that, but some people may really like the attention of millions of eyes on them every day and night. Clearly, reality TV is not for shy people! 

New reality shows appear all the time. They can take place on a farm, in an apartment or even on an island. Each time a new show begins, it seems to be even more daring than the previous one. What do you think the future holds for reality TV? Could the next show take place in your city, neighbourhood or school? Eventually, the day may come when we can all be part of reality TV! 

Source: Adapted from article: “Reality Shows” by Chris Dufford.

Alemán A2 EOI Baleares - 100 Jahre Jugendherbergen

Die Betten selbst beziehen, Küchendienst und um 22.00 Uhr Nachtruhe - das alles kennen viele von uns bestimmt von Klassenfahrten. Meistens haben sie dann in Jugendherbergen gewohnt. Alle Besucher von Jugendherbergen haben 2009 richtig was zu feiern. Die Jugendherbergen gibt es da nämlich genau seit 100 Jahren!

 

Wie alles begann

Die Idee hatte ein Lehrer aus dem heutigen Bundesland Nordrhein-Westfalen. Als er mit seiner Klasse eine Wanderung machte, wurde er von einem Gewitter überrascht. Doch sie hatten Glück: In einer Dorfschule fanden sie einen trockenen Unterschlupf. Eigentlich wäre es gut, wenn es solche Unterkünfte an mehreren Orte gäbe, dachte sich der Lehrer. Sie sollten preiswert sein und speziell für junge Wanderer. Gedacht, getan!

Kurz darauf eröffnete die erste Herberge für die Jugend. Mit der Zeit wurden es immer mehr, auch außerhalb von Deutschland in vielen anderen Ländern. In Deutschland gibt es mittlerweile mehr als 550 Jugendherbergen.

 

Nicht nur Schulklassen

Aber nicht nur Wanderer oder Schulklassen übernachten in diesen Herbergen. Auch viele Familien verbringen dort ihre Ferien. Schließlich hat sich in den 100 Jahren so einiges getan: Inzwischen gibt es richtige Luxusherbergen, zum Beispiel mit Swimmigpool. In dem Land Schweden wurde sogar ein Flugzeug entsprechend umgebaut. Jugendherbergen sind also alles andere als muffig und veraltet.

The Houses of Parliament - EOI Islas Baleares inglés A2

To know something about the world of Britain’s politicians, you should explore the Houses of Parliament. They are part of the Palace of Westminster, which stands on the banks of the Thames across the river from the London Eye. At the Northern end of the Palace there’s a clock tower. As soon as they see it, tourists shout “That’s Big Ben!” Actually, Big Ben is only the name of the impressive 13-tonne bell. You should visit the House of Commons’ public gallery, where you can observe debates on weekday afternoons and evenings. Once inside, visitors pass through the octagonal Central Lobby (where the public can meet members of parliament- MPs), and then enter the House itself. The Government and the Opposition sit on green benches divided by a long table and two parallel red lines. MPs mustn’t cross these lines. The debates are often noisy affairs where The Speaker has to control the proceedings: MPs must attract his attention if they want to speak. Sessions begin with open questions and then new laws are considered. The rest of the Palace of Westminster is only open to public tours during the summer, when you can see the Victoria Tower, the Royal Apartments and the spectacular Westminster Hall. This used to hold the law court where famous people like Guy Fawkes were condemned to death: he failed to blow up the House of Commons in 1605, but a German bomb destroyed the chamber in 1941. It was rebuilt to the original design in 1950.

Source: Speak Up

Oggi mentire è una virtù

Siamo bugiardi. Mentiamo per dare di noi l’immagine migliore, per apparire affascinanti, competenti, informati. Mentiamo a volte senza rendercene conto perché fondamentale è l’accettazione sociale: vince su tutto, anche sulla verità. Mentiamo per convenzione. Bastano dieci minuti di conversazione per infilarci quasi tre bugie. Esagerazioni? No. Lo dimostra la ricerca dell’Università del Massachussetts, svolta dallo psicologo Robert S. Feldman su un campione di 242 persone e durata quattro anni che sfata anche la leggenda che vede le donne più bugiarde.

Dallo studio americano arriva un’altra imbarazzante scoperta: i più menzogneri sembrano essere i più simpatici e intelligenti, quelli che vengono invitati, ascoltati, ricercati da amici e colleghi (in altre parole, ci si fa strada sparandole grosse).

“Raccontare falsità è diventata un’abitudine che fa parte della vita di tutti i giorni. Questa sorta di legittimazione della menzogna ha stupito anche me”, commenta lo stesso Feldman. Se è così, la bugia perde il suo significato negativo e diventa la scorciatoia socialmente accettata per avere successo nei rapporti con il prossimo. E allora come la mettiamo con la verità, la trasparenza? Che fine fa quel sano impulso di sembrare ciò che si è senza falsi abbellimenti e mistificazioni? Viene da pensare che la sincerità non rappresenti più un bene assoluto. È tempo di mentire o di dichiarare chiaro e forte il valore dell’autenticità?

Maria Barretini, insegnante di Filosofia della comunicazione ed Estetica all’Università di Milano dice: “Il diritto alla verità non è a 360 gradi, va considerato a seconda delle situazioni in cui ci si trova e delle relazioni nelle quali siamo coinvolti. Esiste anche il diritto al segreto, l’esigenza di mantenere nel chiuso della propria coscienza o della famiglia qualcosa di sé. È un principio che voglio ribadire proprio in risposta a chi predica una trasparenza totale che va contro la privacy, il rispetto dell’altro, la difesa dell’intimità. Basti pensare ai vari reality-show, dove imperversa l’esibizione di sé, che di certo non rappresenta un aspetto positivo del nostro tempo.Tutta la verità e nient’altro che la verità va bene nelle sale dei tribunali ma trasportare una formula processuale in un principio etico-morale da applicare nella vita quotidiana è impensabile. Si tratta di un estremismo pericoloso, perché toglie lo spazio ai chiaroscuri, al non-detto, a quell’ambiguità indispensabile del vivere sociale. I moralisti contemporanei che condannano ciecamente qualsiasi cosa si discosti dal vero, rischiano, in realtà di creare un assolutismo spietato”.

“Forse è ora di recuperare una sorta di educazione delle relazioni. Vale la pena, oggi più che mai, di ristabilire la priorità di ciò che conta davvero: l’attenzione, la sensibilità, il garbo verso l’altro. Il che significa tenere conto dello stato d’animo del momento, delle particolari circostanze, al di là dei diktat dei paladini del Vero. Ci sono bugie che non danneggiano nessuno, che non nascondono né calunnie né spietati opportunismi e neanche la vigliaccheria dei tanti Ponzio Pilato che seppure con il silenzio cavalcano le mistificazioni. Sono le bugie bianche, le bugie bonarie, spesso altruiste, che scegliamo di dire quando la verità fa troppo male. Oppure quelle che diciamo per compiacenza. Insomma, non dimentichiamo – né facciamo finta di dimenticare – che mentire appartiene a quel linguaggio sociale che tutti conosciamo e riconosciamo e che continua a intrecciarsi nei nostri rapporti con gli altri”. Gian Paolo Caprettini, docente di Semiotica dell’Università di Torino afferma: “Non ci sono giustificazioni per sostenere l’elogio della menzogna. L’autenticità rappresenta uno di quei valori che vale la pena mantenere se desideriamo che le nostre relazioni abbiano un senso. Detto questo è indubbio che oggi siamo sollecitati a mentire soprattutto per fermare chi cerca di intrufolarsi nella nostra esistenza e per arginare il voyeurismo dilagante. Ma qui si tratta di legittima difesa. Respingo qualsiasi giustificazione che porti a fare della bugia un’abitudine accettata. Dobbiamo opporre una strenua resistenza alla menzogna e ostentare un atteggiamento controtendenza. In altre parole, occorre essere tanto sinceri da sbilanciare le strategie degli intriganti che si muovono nella menzogna e nella calunnia. Lo ripeto con forza: non sottovalutiamo l’autenticità. Perché spesso il suo effetto è dirompente, contagia anche chi è abituato a tacere o a omettere, fa uscire allo scoperto chi ha tenuto dentro di sé angherie subite per colpa di falsità altrui, trascina altre voci e altre verità. Penso che la bugia sia uno scudo per proteggersi perché, in realtà, la debolezza è di chi non riesce a contraccambiare la sincerità delle parole e delle emozioni. E accade spesso, purtroppo. Perché, con il trascorrere del tempo, l’abitudine a fingere e mentire diventa una prigione da cui non sei in grado di uscire. Alla fine si rischia di diventare burocrati dei nostri stessi sentimenti. La felicità non passa certo da qui. C’è da sperare, quindi, che ci sia ancora chi sa riconoscere il valore della sincerità”.

(Da L’Espresso)

La dieta mediterranea è come Venezia

Come la Laguna di Venezia, i Trulli di Alberobello, il Machu Picchu, Notre-Dame di Parigi, la Statua della Libertà o la Grande Barriera Corallina, anche la dieta mediterranea è entrata a far parte del patrimonio dell’umanità dell’Unesco. La proposta è stata della Spagna e L’Unione Europea l’ha sostenuta in pieno. La decisione ha grande valore per l’Italia, nella cui cucina tradizionale si trovano ingredienti capaci di contrastare l’invecchiamento delle cellule e le malattie cardiovascolari e conseguentemente, di farci conquistare il primato europeo della longevità (con una media di 77,2 anni per gli uomini e 82,8 per le donne) e quello dei cittadini europei meno grassi. L’uomo italiano, con i suoi 168 centimetri, è più basso di due centimetri rispetto alla media europea, ma ha un peso di 68,70 chili, di molto inferiore allo standard comunitario (72,2).

Il 36% dei nostri ragazzi intorno ai 13 anni sono però obesi o in sovrappeso, contro il 20% di quelli europei: di qui l’importanza di riscoprire il sano modello alimentare mediterraneo.

È poi recente la notizia che alcuni scienziati di New York hanno scoperto un altro beneficio della dieta mediterranea che, in base ai loro studi, combatterebbe anche il morbo di Alzheimer.

Frutta, verdura, legumi, cereali, acidi grassi insaturi (olio d’oliva) e pesce riducono il rischio di ammalarsi e, una volta contratta la malattia, ne rallentano l’evoluzione.

Native American tribe reclaims slice of the Hamptons after court victory - EOI Baleares inglés B2 resuelto

From a distance the teardrop-shaped peninsula looks just like any other bit of the famed Hamptons shoreline. Thick woods crowd down to the water’s edge and, through the trees, houses and roads can be glimpsed. But this land is not part of the Hamptons, neither is it really part of the United States anymore. This patch – in the middle of the playground of Manhattan’s social elite – is proudly and fiercely Native American country. Almost four centuries since its first contact with the white man and after a 32-year court battle that has just ended in victory, the tiny Shinnecock tribe has now been formally recognized by America’s federal government. The decision means that the Shinnecock, numbering some 1,300 members, many of whom live in deep poverty compared with their wealthy neighbours, can apply for federal funding to build schools, health centres and set up their own police force. It means its tiny 750-acre reservation is now a semi-sovereign nation within the US, just like much bigger and more famous reservations in the west. In order to qualify, the Shinnecock literally had to prove that it existed, submitting thousands of pages of tribal records. “Why do we need federal recognition to show we are who we are?” said Shinnecock leader Lance Gumbs as he sat in his office in the community centre. “It’s a humiliating, degrading and insensitive process. Why do Indian people have to go through that? No other peoples are treated like that.” Many believe that the lengthy and painful process that the Shinnecock has been forced to go through is explained by the tribe’s position bang in the middle of the Hamptons, the string of Long Island towns where rich New Yorkers come to party away the summers. The difference between Shinnecock land and the rest of the Hamptons is jarring. The reservation, signalled by a line of stalls selling cheap cigarettes, sits side by side with the town of Southampton, heart of the Hamptons scene. On the reservation, some roads are dusty and unpaved. The houses are sometimes ramshackle. Unemployment can be a problem for many Shinnecock members. Outside the reservation, on the streets of Southampton, stretch limos and black Lexuses prowl down streets lined with shops selling Ralph Lauren and Diane von Furstenberg. A real estate agent on Southampton’s main street happily advertises a local house going for $12.2 million. Historically – and indeed pretty much since Europeans first arrived in the area in the 1600s – the Shinnecock has been on the retreat. It lost land steadily as more and more Europeans began to farm its traditional territory, eventually leading to an agreement in 1703 that saw it confined to a broad swath of land around Southampton under a 1,000-year lease. However, in 1859 the pressure of development saw that deal scrapped by the settlers and the Shinnecock reduced to its current tiny holding. For years, tribal members then eked out a living working on white farms or helping local fishermen and whalers.

Now that is all set to change as a key part of federal recognition allows the Shinnecock to do the one thing that has changed Native American fortunes more than anything else in the last 100 years: build a casino. Gumbs now sees real power finally in Shinnecock hands. “We are going after everything we are entitled to,” he said. “I am not a big fan of Southampton. They were happy as long as we were the good little Indians in the corner. Well, that’s changed now.” Some of the Shinnecock feel that federal recognition – and the prospect of a casino – might be the beginning of a wider Shinnecock resurgence. In the white land grab of 1859, an area of land called the Shinnecock Hills was taken. Many Shinnecock held it to be sacred ground. It is now full of rich houses and the famous Shinnecock Hills golf club, with total real estate worth more than a billion dollars. The Shinnecock tribe has sued to get it back. 

Source: © Guardian News & Media 2010 First published in The Observer, 11/07/10

The trip to McCarthy - EOI Islas Baleares inglés C1 resuelto

McCarthy is a couple of hundred miles east of Anchorage, on the way to the border with the Yukon territory of Canada. It is surrounded by one of the largest areas of wilderness in the world, where four of the great mountain ranges of North America collide. Nine of the highest peaks in the USA are there, surrounded by enormous glaciers, rivers and canyons, and teeming with seriously wild wildlife. McCarthy, old by Alaskan standards, dates from the first decade of the twentieth century, when it developed as a social hub for the copper mines at Kennicott, five miles away. When the mines closed it went into decline, and for a while became a ghost town. The current year-round population, depending on which source you consult, is somewhere between fourteen and twenty. There seems a good chance I’ll be able to meet them all, if only I can get there.
Unlike the other places I have been visiting, McCarthy has no known Irish connection. Something about it, though, is calling out. Hidden at the end of one of the loneliest roads on earth, the town seems the right place to end a journey that has been driven as much by instinct as by design, and which has paid me back with many happy accidents. So I’m going there because we share a name; and because, like most people, I’ve always fancied going to Alaska, because it’s big, scary and far away. But as well as all this, I also have a hunch. I didn’t have it when I first set out, but now I want to pursue it all the way to the end of the road.
“Aviation in itself is not dangerous, but like the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect,” says a sign on the wall of the hut. Outside on the airstrip a tiny red and yellow plane sits on its skis among the piles of snow, looking like a toy. This is how I will get to McCarthy, if the pilot ever comes back.
The guy in the hut says he’s gone into town to pick up some shopping. I’ve had a look inside the plane. There are two seats and sixteen cases of beer! I’ve hopped between tropical islands on these little bush planes, but I’ve never been on one in the kind of landscape we’ll be going through today. My afternoon departure time has already been put back twice when:
“Hi. I’m Kelly,” says a big, bearded, genial man who’s just walked into the hut. It’s straight out to the plane, door shut, headphones and seatbelt on, taxi what seems about fifteen yards along the runway, then we’re up in the air and heading directly towards those enormous snowy mountains. “This is real flying, eh?” says Kelly, as I nod and smile and try to come to terms with the worrying sensation of being airborne in this tiny machine.
We fly to the left of the mountain range that faces the airstrip, then on through a dreamscape of white peaks we can almost reach out and touch. Far below are frozen rivers and crystal glaciers glinting turquoise and emerald in the brilliant afternoon sun. Kelly’s skilful hand on the controls inspires confidence. We talk using headsets with microphones attached, looking like singers in a boy band. He’s good company and points out the different mountain ranges. As he sees me relax, however, his stories start to stray from what you want to be hearing when you’re hovering at this height:
“There was a forecast for some turbulence on the way back today, but looks like we might have missed it. My wife and I stopped overnight along the coast one time and we meant to carry on home the next day. The forecast was for extreme turbulence, but we thought we’d try anyway because sometimes those predictions are way out. Well, it was so wild up there . . .”
There’s a little electronic sign on the dashboard that says it’s only fifty miles to our destination, and now Kelly is pointing out of my wide window and tilting the plane, not to push me out, but to show me the McCarthy road. I can see where it skirts the edge of the glacier and the melting ice has made it impassable. As we’re rounding the glacier, hugging the side of the mountain, the winds suddenly hit. It’s seriously bumpy for the first time—but, like the man said, this is real flying, and he seems to be in control—and, against all my better instincts, I find myself wanting it to bump a little bit more as we swoop low over the first buildings we’ve seen since the hut at the airfield in Anchorage. McCarthy is just a handful of wooden houses. A little further on we sweep low past the deserted structures of the Kennicott mine. We bank steeply to our left over the glacier, and make a perfect landing on the McCarthy airstrip. Kelly turns off the engine, and I get out and listen to the most silent place I have ever heard.

Adapted from Advanced Placement English Tests. Macgraw Hill. 2008.

L'intégriste des intégristes

Il a mis les milieux catholiques en émoi et indigné le reste du monde ; il a obligé le pape à assurer les juifs de sa "solidarité totale". Il vient de se voir démis de ses fonctions à la tête du séminaire intégriste de la Reja en Argentine, qu'il dirigeait depuis quelques années. Mais dans la tempête, Richard Williamson fait mine de rien et, le 7 février, date de la dernière chronique parue sur son blog, il disserte, en mélomane, de la beauté de la troisième symphonie de Beethoven.

En assurant au cours d'un entretien télévisé que "pas un juif n'avait péri dans les chambres à gaz", cet évêque britannique de 68 ans, membre de la Fraternité sacerdotale Saint-Pie-X, le courant schismatique de Mgr Lefebvre, a acquis en quelques heures une notoriété mondiale. Sa bombe négationniste, lancée au moment même où le pape annonçait la levée de l'excommunication qui le frappait, ainsi que trois de ses confrères, depuis vingt ans, a installé le personnage dans son rôle de "type incontrôlable".

"C'est un fanatique qui passe son temps à dire des conneries", veut croire un prêtre français, bon connaisseur du milieu intégriste. Ancien professeur de littérature et de philosophie, Mgr Williamson est surtout connu pour être, parmi les héritiers de Mgr Lefebvre, l'un des tenants de la ligne la plus dure à l'égard du Vatican. "Il est, sur les sujets touchant à l'Eglise et à son évolution depuis le concile Vatican II, d'une intransigeance totale", témoigne une personnalité engagée dans le dialogue entre les intégristes et les conciliaires, qui l'a rencontré à plusieurs reprises.

Il se raconte même que Mgr Lefebvre, percevant sous ce personnage coutumier des jugements à l'emporte-pièce de possibles complications, aurait hésité à l'ordonner évêque ; ce que dément la Fraternité Saint-Pie-X. "Il fut choisi pour ses dons en langues (la Fraternité ayant l'ambition d'essaimer à travers le monde) et sa fidélité à la pensée de notre fondateur", indique aujourd'hui un lefebvriste.

Ces "qualités" lui valurent en tout cas d'entrer dans l'histoire de l'Eglise catholique, le 30 juin 1988, devant quelque 6 000 fidèles et des dizaines de journalistes. Ce jour-là après des mois d'hésitations, Mgr Lefebvre ordonne évêques quatre prêtres de la Fraternité. Leur mission : ordonner à leur tour des

prêtres pour que la Fraternité ne s'éteigne pas avec son fondateur, alors âgé de 83 ans. Ce geste provoque l'excommunication immédiate des évêques, et crée le schisme que Benoît XVI s'efforce aujourd'hui de résorber.

Lors de son ordination, à 48 ans, Richard Williamson, converti sur le tard au catholicisme, est le plus âgé des quatre impétrants. Ce parcours ecclésiastique fulgurant ravit cet anglican londonien de bonne famille, compagnon de la première heure de Mgr Lefebvre. "Il m'a toujours dit qu'il était un converti de 68", assure un prêtre qui l'a côtoyé au séminaire d'Ecône (Suisse), le fief historique de la Fraternité. Horrifié par le virage "libéral" que prennent alors les sociétés occidentales, le professeur Williamson succombe au discours conservateur de Mgr Lefebvre, qui, dès la fin du concile de Vatican II, en 1965, s'est érigé en défenseur de la "tradition", recrutant dans les milieux les plus réactionnaires de l'Eglise. L'évêque britannique trouve à Ecône "un environnement favorable à une

véritable conversion", assure l'une des personnes qui l'y a rencontré. Le converti se complaît bientôt dans la dévotion à la Vierge ; il développe en outre un goût marqué pour "l'apocalypse".

Le doute persiste aussi sur sa volonté réelle de voir lever son excommunication, contrairement à Mgr Bernard Fellay le supérieur général de la Fraternité, qui y travaille depuis plusieurs années. "En provoquant le scandale avec ses propos sur les chambres à gaz, il empêche tout accord de réconciliation entre le courant intégriste et le Vatican", analyse l'abbé Guillaume de Tanoüarn, ancien lefebvriste, aujourd'hui membre de l'Institut du Bon Pasteur. Cette intransigeance expliquerait son "éloignement" en Argentine, qui n'abrite "pas le séminaire le plus prestigieux de la Fraternité", reconnaît l'un de ses membres.

Présenté comme un "homme de culture", "pianiste émérite", capable d'évoquer Shakespeare dans ses homélies, Mgr Williamson assure s'être intéressé au négationnisme dans les années 1980. "J'ai toujours cherché la vérité", se justifie sans vergogne le prélat anglais dans le Spiegel du 9 février 2009. Une "quête" qui l'amène à déclarer dès 1989 au Canada : "Les juifs ont inventé l'holocauste pour nous mettre à genoux, pour faire accepter leur nouvel Etat Israël. Tout cela, ce ne sont que des mensonges."

Après la répétition de ses prises de position qui, ces dernières semaines, ont scandalisé le monde, Mgr Williamson s'est déclaré prêt à "étudier" à nouveau la question. La Fraternité a officiellement récusé ses propos, tout en se montrant assez compréhensive. Sur son site, elle salue la "volonté (de Mgr Williamson) de s'informer objectivement en étudiant la thèse adverse de celle à laquelle il a adhéré jusqu'à présent", laissant entendre au passage qu'il y aurait bien, sur ce sujet, deux "thèses" en présence.

Pour l'heure, la Fraternité ne s'est donc pas résolue à se débarrasser de l'évêque.

Il est vrai qu'à la tête de ses propres troupes, "il pourrait faire des petits" en ordonnant de nouveaux prêtres et, ainsi, perpétuer le schisme. Parallèlement, sa présence complique un accord, déjà hypothétique, avec le Vatican. L'Eglise, elle, ne peut pas l'excommunier à nouveau : "Le pape n'excommunie pas sur des sujets historiques", note un évêque.

"Peut-être finira-t-il aumônier pour religieuses contemplatives ?", suggère mifigue mi-raisin un proche de la Fraternité. Ou devant la justice des hommes. En Allemagne, le parquet a ouvert une enquête ; en France et en Argentine, des plaintes ont été déposées pour "contestation de crimes contre l'humanité". Le "problème Williamson" est loin d'être résolu.