Roman Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson, on trial in Regensburg in Germany for denying the Holocaust, has been fined 10,000 euros and found guilty of inciting racial hatred.
In 2009, the British cleric gave an interview in Regensburg to a Swedish broadcaster in which he denied the existence of Nazi gas chambers during the Second World War. He also said that less than 300,000 Jews were murdered in Nazi concentration camps.
Holocaust denial is illegal in Germany, and the bishop’s comments led to his being fined 12,000 euros. He was then put on trial for refusing to pay the fine.
The 70-year-old bishop, who lives in London and was not present at the trial, belongs to an ultra-conservative Catholic group, the Saint Pius X Society. He was received back into the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Benedict XVI the day after the interview was broadcast. The Holocaust denial case is a major embarrassment to the Vatican.
Bishop Richard Williamson
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Please could you correct this story.
I think you would find, after researching the facts, that the first sentence contains an erroneous statement: -
"Roman Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson, on trial in Regensburg in Germany for denying the Holocaust, has been fined 10,000 euros and found guilty of inciting racial hatred."
Williamson is NOT a Roman Catholic bishop. Again. Williamson is NOT a Roman Catholic bishop. He belongs to a group which the Catholic Church regards as a schismatic break-away sect (whose clergy do not form a part of the Church). The Pope recently lifted an excommunication against the bishops of this organisation (known as The Society of St Pius X), hoping that these men would then wish to enter into full communion with the Church (and abandon their peculiar claims) - but, so far they have not done so. Whilst lifting the excommunication the Pope also stressed that Rome did not recognise their episcopal ministry.
Therefore, this person, as far as the RC Church is concerned, is not a bishop within its ranks - and never has been
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