Tag: Holocaust denier

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?”

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.