Earthtimes
February 4, 2009
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/254156,reporter-denies-plot-to-embarrass-pope-over-holocaust-denier.html
Stockholm - A Swedish television reporter rejected allegations there was a plot to embarrass Pope Benedict XVI by interviewing a Holocaust denier, news reports said Wednesday. Swedish television recently aired a documentary on the ultra- conservative Society of Saint Pius X that seeks a restoration of 19th-century Catholicism, and included an interview with British-born Bishop Richard Williamson.
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On camera, Williamson denied the existence of gas chambers at the Nazi death camp in Auschwitz as well as the scale of the Holocaust, stating that no more than "200,000 to 300,000" Jews were killed.
Stockhom daily Svenska Dagbladet reported that a conservative Catholic blog and media in Italy have circulated a secret report compiled by the Vatican alleging that progressive bishops used Swedish television to set up a "trap" against the pope.
The interview was aired just days before the Vatican announced that the excommunications of Williamson and three other bishops had been revoked.
The excommunciations have been criticized, including by members of the Roman-Catholic church in Sweden. The move has also strained ties between the Vatican and Jewish leaders and communities.
Television reporter Ali Fegan said the alleged report of a plot was "ridiculous and deplorable."
"The church is trying to rid itself of the problem by shooting the messenger," Fegan was quoted as telling Svenska Dagbladet.
"It is not our fault the pope revoked the excommunications. We have only exposed Williamson as a Holocaust denier," he added.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday called on the pope to speak out bluntly on the issue of Williamson's denial that the Nazis killed 5 million to 6 million Jews during the Second World War.
Fegan said that during his research into the Society of Saint Pius X he found a 1989 newspaper interview where Williamson denied the Holocaust but there did not appear to have been a follow-up.
In November, Fean and his team visited Germmany to film a Swedish priest who has converted to Catholicism, and who after being consecrated as a deacon was to return to Sweden to work for the Society of Saint Pius X.
Williamson was also present at the consecration and granted the interview where Fegan asked the bishop on his views about the Holocaust.
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