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British-born Roman Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson arrives at Heathrow Airport in after the Argentine government ordered him out - Source: Reuters -
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The Vatican rejected an apology from a bishop whose denial of
the Holocaust caused international uproar between Jews and
Catholics, saying it did not meet its demand for a full and public
recanting.
British Bishop Richard Williamson, who was ordered to leave
Argentina and is now in his homeland, on Thursday issued a
statement in which he said, "To all souls that took honest scandal
from what I said, before God I apologise."
But chief Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said
Williamson's statement does not seem to respect the conditions set
forth by the Vatican on February 4, when it ordered him to "in an
absolutely unequivocal and public way distance himself from his
positions" regarding the Holocaust.
On January 24, Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications of
Williamson and three other bishops to try to heal a 20-year-old
schism that began when they were thrown out of the Church for being
ordained without the permission of Pope John Paul II.
Among those who condemned Williamson and the Pope's decision were
Holocaust survivors, progressive Catholics, members of the US
Congress, Israel's Chief Rabbinate, German Jewish leaders and
Jewish writer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel.
Williamson told Swedish television in an interview broadcast on
January 21, "I believe there were no gas chambers".
He said no more than 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration
camps, rather than the six million accepted by mainstream
historians.
In his statement on Thursday, Williamson said, "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."
Jews say apology 'empty'
Even before the Vatican issued its statement rejecting Williamson's
statement as unsatisfactory, Jewish groups branded his apology as
shallow and empty.
"As he clearly failed to retract his malicious lies, Williamson has
again shown that he is a staunch anti-Semite and incorrigible
Holocaust denier who doubts the genocide of six million Jewish
people," said Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Central Council
of Jews in Germany.
Williamson made his comments denying the Holocaust in Germany,
where such comments are a crime.
"Williamson's disingenuous apology cannot close the book on this
chapter," said Menachem Rosensaft, founding chairman of the
International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust
Survivors.
"Williamson in no way recanted his denial of the Holocaust.
Instead, he merely expressed regret that his public expression of
his noxious views called attention to Pope Benedict XVI's
ill-conceived attempt to rehabilitate him and other members of the
anti-Semitic Society of Saint Pius X," said Rosensaft, who is the
son of two survivors of Nazi death camps.
Williamson arrived in Britain earlier this week after he was
ordered to leave Argentina, where he was the director of a seminary
of the ultra-traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX).
The controversy over Williamson's comments and the Pope's decision
to lift his excommunication led to the worst crisis in
Catholic-Jewish relations in half a century.
On February 12 the Pope, in an attempt to defuse the crisis, told
Jewish leaders that "any denial or minimisation of this terrible
crime is intolerable", especially if it comes from a
clergyman.
The row over Williamson has led many to take a closer look at the
SSPX, its view of Jews and its future in the Church.
The Vatican says that before the SSPX can be fully readmitted into
the Church, its leaders and members must first accept the teachings
of the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council, which urged respect for
Judaism and other religions.
One of its key documents, Nostra Aetate (In Our Times), repudiated
the concept of collective Jewish guilt for Christ's death.
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