Rome rejects bishop’s apology

BY ANNA ARCO
THE VATICAN has said the apology issued by a Holocaustdenying Lefebvrist bishop does not go far enough.
Fr Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said last week that the apology made by the Society of St Pius X’s Bishop Richard Williamson did not meet the conditions set by the Holy See for his full readmission into the Church.
He said: “The declaration of the bishop does not seem to respect the conditions established in the note of the Secretariat of State of February 4 2009, where it says that he ‘must distance himself in an absolutely unequivocal and public way from his positions regarding the Shoah’.” Bishop Williamson – whose remarks about the Holocaust have been at the heart of the controversy surrounding Pope Benedict’s decision to lift the excommunications of four Lefebvrist bishops – issued a public statement last week in which he said he regretted “having made such remarks, and that if I had known before hand the full harm and hurt to which they would give rise, especially to the Church, but also to survivors and relatives of victims of injustice under the Third Reich, I would not have made them.” Bishop Williamson said he had considered the consequences of his remarks on Swedish television, in which he said that only 300,000 – not six million – Jews had been killed during the Holocaust and denied that the Nazis had used gas chambers.
In the statement, which was not sent to the Vatican but first appeared on the Rorate Caeli blog and a Catholic news wire, he argued that the comments he had made on Swedish television were only “the opinion of a non-historian, an opinion formed 20 years ago on the basis of evidence then available and rarely expressed in public since. However, the events of recent weeks and the advice of senior members of the Society of St Pius X have persuaded me of my responsibility for much distress caused. To all souls that took honest scandal from what I said before God I apologise.” Bishop Williamson returned to his native Britain last Wednesday from Argentina, after being told that he had 10 days to leave the country or face expulsion. He was removed as head of the SSPX seminary in La Reja, in Argentina, which he had led for five years, soon after the controversy escalated.
Bishop Bernard Fellay, the leader of the SSPX, welcomed the apology as a step in the right direction but said Bishop Williamson would be excluded from the Society if he denied the Holocaust again. Speaking to the German weekly Der Spiegel Bishop Fellay said the apology was definitely a “first plea for forgiveness and therefore an important step in the right direction”, but that it was impossible for Bishop Williamson to resume full duties.
He said: “He has damaged us and hurt our reputation. We have very clearly distanced ourselves. He was not ordained as a bishop for his own personal purpose but for the good of the Church, to spread the revealed truth.” The SSPX leader also said it would be better for everyone if Bishop Williamson “stays quiet and stays in a corner somewhere”.
He said: “I want him to disappear from the public eye for a good while.” Bishop Fellay also admitted that he hadn’t taken Bishop Williamson’s opinions “seriously enough”.
Argentina’s interior ministry said Bishop Williamson had “concealed the true motive for his stay in the country” because he said he was an employee of a non-governmental group when he was serving as rector of the SSPX seminary. He left the country last Wednesday and is now staying in south-west London.
According to the German newspaper the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Bishop Williamson could face prosecution for Holocaust denial, which is a punishable offence in Germany. A European warrant could force Britain to hand Bishop Williamson over to the German authorities, though it is considered unlikely.