Pope rejects apology from Holocaust-denial bishop
The Catholic Church said last night that an apology by an English bishop who denies the full extent of the Holocaust did not go far enough.
European justice ministers are also considering legal action against the bishop, who has been advised by his lawyers that he should not risk travelling to France or Germany.
The German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said that her country was considering issuing an extradition warrant.
Bishop Richard Williamson, a friend of David Irving, the revisionist historian, and a traditionalist Catholic whose views on the Holocaust have outraged Jewish and other groups worldwide, apologised yesterday for the "distress" caused by his views, but made no retraction of the views themselves.
"The Holy Father and my superior, Bishop Bernard Fellay, have requested that I reconsider the remarks I made four months ago, because their consequences have been so heavy," Bishop Williamson said in a statement to a Catholic news agency.
Regret
"Observing these consequences, I can truthfully say that I regret having made such remarks, and that if I had known beforehand 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."
A spokesman for the Holy See said that the statement "doesn't appear to respect the conditions" set by Pope Benedict XVI before it will allow him back into the Church as a functioning cleric.
This month, the Pope said that Bishop Williamson must "absolutely and unequivocally distance himself from his remarks about the Shoah if he is to be admitted to episcopal functions in the church".
In an interview on Swedish television broadcast just days before the Pope lifted excommunications on him and three other bishops of the traditionalist Society of St Pius X, Bishop Williamson said that there were no gas chambers and that no more than 300,000 Jews died in the Holocaust, instead of the true figure of six million.
Religious and educational groups worldwide also said that the statement of apology did not go far enough.
The Swedish television interview was conducted four months ago in Germany, where Holocaust denial is a crime punishable by prison.
Ms Zypries said that officials in her country were considering issuing an EU-wide warrant against Mr Williamson.
The EU's justice ministers are also considering legal action.
Mark Frazer, a spokesman for the Board or Deputies of British Jews, said: "The Jewish community and many more besides will be unmoved by this apology. The Vatican were very clear that Richard Williamson must recant, yet he continues to refuse to do so. Sadly, this late regret comes across as nothing more than an empty sentiment from a man under the pressure of public scrutiny."
Jewish groups in Italy called the apology "thoroughly ambiguous".
The Society of St Pius X has distanced itself from Bishop Williamson's remarks and removed him as the director of its seminary in La Reja, Argentina. (© The Times, London)
- Ruth Gledhill and Chris Smyth in Rome
