Argentina is expelling a Holocaust-denying bishop whose recent readmission to the Catholic Church prompted anger and outrage from Jewish groups, according to international reports.
Bishop Richard Williamson, whose excommunication was lifted by the Vatican in January, will be forced to leave Argentina within 10 days, the Associated Press reported Thursday (Feb. 19).
Argentina’s Interior Ministry said Williamson “has concealed the true motives for his stay in the country” and has not declared “his true activity” as director of a seminary, the AP reports.
A member of the ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X, Williamson was removed as head of the society’s seminary in Argentina on Feb. 9, after international condemnation of his remarks on the Holocast.
Williamson has said that no more than 300,000 Jews “perished in Nazi concentration camps … not one of them by gassing in a gas chamber.”
Responding to harsh criticism from world leaders, the Vatican said on Feb. 4 that Williamson will not be allowed to function as a bishop without first “distancing himself in an absolute and unequivocal way from his positions” on the Holocaust.
In response, Williamson said he will “review the historical evidence once again … but that will take time.”
By Daniel Burke
Religion News Service
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