Roman Catholic Bishop Ad van Luyn of Rotterdam has said that Pope Benedict's decision to rehabilitate renegade British Bishop Richard Williamson is "disastrous". Speaking on public television, Bishop Van Luyn said that Williamson's denial of the Holocaust and its gas chambers are "shocking, totally ahistoric, and at odds with the second Vatican Council [the 1962-65 church reform]".

Williamson claims that the Nazis did not kill six million Jews, but 300,000 at most. Following his opposition to modernising the Roman Catholic church, Bishop Williamson was excommunicated in 1988, together with three other traditionalist bishops who had turned against reforms. The Pope reinstated the four conservatives last week, as part of his stated ambition to reunite all forms of Christian worship under the umbrella of Rome.

Anti-Semites
A professor of theology and ethics at the Roman Catholic Radboud University in Nijmegen is leaving the church over the issue. Professor Jean-Pierre Wils told Radio Netherlands Worldwide, "For many years it has been known that Williamson and the other three traditionalists are anti-Semites. The pope must have known about this. Only now are people beginning to see what is really happening in the Vatican. People were idolising the Pope over the past few years without asking themselves what his political ambitions were. These are political actions, it's not just a theological problem. It is important that political consequences are drawn from this."

A German pope
The professor is "deeply ashamed about what is happening" and told an online Catholic magazine he does not any longer want to be "identified with the anti-modern, anti-pluralist and totalitarian spirit of this church". Professor Wils added that particularly a German pope - Benedict was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he came pontiff - should have been aware of the guilt towards the Jews that rests on the shoulders of the German people.

Bishop Van Luyn has called a meeting of the Dutch bishops next week to discuss the issue and prepare a message to the Dutch Jewish community. The bishop's criticism is shared by Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen, himself a Roman Catholic, who has told the Vatican's ambassador that the Pope should unambiguously condemn Williamson's statements.

"They are demonstrably incorrect and shocking, particularly at a time when anti-Semitic slogans are being heard in Europe again," the minister said in a statement. Over the weekend, the British bishop apologised for the furore he caused, without actually retracting what he said.

In a further decision that is likely to please traditionalists within the Roman Catholic church, Pope Benedict has appointed Father Gerhard Maria Wagner assistant bishop of Linz in Austria. Wagner gained notoriety because of his vehement opposition to the Harry Potter novels, which he called "Satanic", issuing a warning against the magic formulae in the books.

Earlier, Wagner had said it was no coincidence that Hurricane Katrina had destroyed all abortion clinics and nightclubs in New Orleans. The conservative bishop says that climate change and its attendant disasters are a consequence of the "spiritual pollution" of the world.

Traditionalists and the Roman Catholic church
The four bishops whose excommunications were remitted by Pope Benedict XVI are Richard Williamson, Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, and Alfonso del Gallareta. They are the leaders of a schismatic society, the Society of St. Pius X, SSPX, inspired by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre of Switzerland. Lefebvre, who died in 1991, founded the SSPX in 1970. It is named after Pope Pius X, who firmly opposed modernism in the church.

The Society rejects the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965 which decided, among other things, that neither today's Jews nor the Jews of the time of Christ were all responsible for the death of Christ. The Council also revised the liturgy, lifting some of the restrictions of the traditional Latin Mass. Finally, the Council aimed for pan-Christian unity (ecumenism) without requiring the conversion of non-Catholic Christians.

Traditionalists view the changes ordained by the Second Vatican council as contrary to the interests of the church, and want to roll them back.