Bishop Williamson ‘sacked by seminary’

The controversial British-born Roman Catholic bishop who recently denied the Holocaust, causing a potential rift between the German Chancellor and the German-born Pope Benedict XVI, is reported today to have been sacked from his seminary in South America.

According to news agency Diarios y Noticias, the ultra-conservative Society of St Pius X is removing Bishop Richard Williamson from the post of director of its seminary in La Reja, Argentina.

Pope Benedict XVI has faced uproar in his native Germany and severe criticism from Jewish groups over his decision last week to lift the Vatican's ban on Williamson (he was ex-communicated 20 years ago after he was conscecrated along with three other bishops by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent), despite the TV interview Williamson gave in January when he said: "I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, but none of them by gas chambers."

The Vatican has since explained that the Pope was unaware of Williamson's views when he made the decision to lift the excommunication.

When the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, complained last week, the Vatican ordered Williamson to recant his remarks. But while the bishop has apologised to the Pope, he has not withdrawn his claims that the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust is a fiction.

The German Chancellor and the Pope discussed the issue further by telephone this weekend, and on Sunday released a joint statement about their "good and constructive conversation" and "common deep concern about the perpetual warning of the Shoah [Holocaust] for humanity".
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