Vatican: Williamson Must Recant Statments on Holocaust

Posted by Ryan Sayre Patrico on February 4, 2009, 9:52 AM

(From First Things)

Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Williamson must “unequivocally” distance himself from his statements before he can be admitted to episcopal office in the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican said on Wednesday.

It also said that Williamson’s remarks denying that the Nazis used gas chambers to eliminate millions of European Jews in World War II were not known to Pope Benedict XIV when he decided to lift the excommunication of four renegade bishops last month.

The Vatican statement also said that the rebel Priestly Association of Saint Pius X, to which the rebels belonged, must recognize the reformist Vatican II Council of 1962-65 and the popes who followed it.