Category: Holocaust

The Vatican said Friday it is not satisfied by the apology issued by a Catholic bishop who denied the Holocaust, saying the cleric must still clearly “distance himself” from the controversial comments.

Bishop Richard Williamson, who is now in England, issued a statement Thursday saying he regretted making the remarks. But he did not retract them or say he had changed his mind about the Holocaust.

A bishop whose recent rehabilitation by Pope Benedict XVI provoked global outrage has apologized for remarks in which he denied the Holocaust, a Catholic news agency reported on Thursday.

Some outside observers were not convinced by Bishop Williamson’s statement. “He does everything except confront the central issue of this whole crisis,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. “Has he changed his mind about the Holocaust, and does he believe that the Holocaust is a historic fact?”

The Vatican demanded Wednesday that a bishop who denied the Holocaust recant his positions before being fully admitted into the Roman Catholic Church.

The Vatican also said in a statement that Pope Benedict XVI didn’t know about Bishop Richard Williamson’s views when he agreed to lift his excommunication and that of three other ultraconservative bishops Jan. 21.

A Vatican cardinal has said that the decision to rehabilitate an ultra-conservative bishop who denies that any Jews were killed in the Holocaust was “badly mishandled”, amid an escalating internal row over the decision.

The remarks by Cardinal Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, follow dismay expressed by German bishops over a “loss of faith in the Pope” because of the row over the lifting of Bishop Williamson and three other ultra-traditionalists.

Marcel Woell, the regional chairman of the National Democratic Party in Hesse state, was convicted of incitement for comments that he made in March during a meeting of a local assembly where he has a seat.

Robert Faurisson, who has been convicted five times in France for denying crimes against humanity, is expected to speak at a local hotel instead.

Some UK schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Governmentbacked study has revealed.