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	Vatican Rejects 'Apology' from Holocaust-Denial Bishop Richard Williamson By Ruth Gledhill The Times February 27, 2009 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5816839.ece The Roman Catholic Church said today that an apology by the English bishop who denies the full extent of the Holocaust did not go far enough. European justice ministers are considering legal action against the bishop, who has been advised by his lawyers that he should not risk travelling to France or Germany. Bishop Richard Williamson, a friend of revisionist historian David Irving and a traditionalist Catholic whose views on the Holocaust have outraged Jewish and other groups worldwide, apologised uesterday for the "distress" caused by his views but made no retraction of the views themselves. In an interview on Swedish television broadcast just days before Pope Benedict XVI lifted excommunications on him and three other bishops of the traditionalist Society of St Pius X, Bishop Williamson said there were no gas chambers and that no more than 300,000 Jews died in the Shoah, instead of the true figure of six million. A spokesman for the Holy See said the statement "doesn't appear to respect the conditions" set by the Pope before it will allow him back into the Church as a functioning cleric. Earlier this month the Pope said Bishop Williamson must "absolutely and unequivocally distance himself from his remarks about the Shoah if he is to be admitted to episcopal functions in the church." Religious and educational groups worldwide also said a statement of apology put out by Bishop Richard Williamson did not go far enough. The Swedish television interview was conducted four months ago in Germany, where Holocaust denial is a crime punishable by prison. Although an extradition attempt from Germany is unlikely, EU's Justice Ministers are considering legal action Williamson. The European Framework Decision on action to combat Racism and Xenophobia could offer a tool against the priest of the Catholic SSPX, said the EU Presidency spokesman, Czech Justice Minister Jiri Pospisil in talks in Brussels. "Personally I think it's possible, but it must be discussed," said Pospisil. In a statement to a Catholic news agency, Bishop Williamson said: "The Holy Father and my Superior, Bishop Bernard Fellay, have requested that I reconsider the remarks I made on Swedish television four months ago, because their consequences have been so heavy. "Observing these consequences I can truthfully say that I regret having made such remarks, and that if I had known beforehand the full harm and hurt to which they would give rise, especially to the Church, but also to survivors and relatives of victims of injustice under the Third Reich, I would not have made them." Bishop Williamson said he had been giving his opinion as a non-historian. This was "an opinion formed 20 years ago on the basis of evidence then available, and rarely expressed in public since." He added: "However, the events of recent weeks and the advice of senior members of the Society of St Pius X have persuaded me of my responsibility for much distress caused. To all souls that took honest scandal from what I said, before God I apologise." Mark Frazer, a spokesman for the Board or Deputies of British Jews, said: "The Jewish community and many more besides will be unmoved by this apology. The Vatican were very clear that Richard Williamson must recant, yet he continues to refuse to do so. Sadly, this late regret comes across as nothing more than an empty sentiment from a man under the pressure of public scrutiny." Iris Rosenberg, spokeswoman for the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, said: "If he is looking to repent, he needs to admit that he was wrong in denying the truth." Stephen Smith, founder of Britain's Holocaust Centre, said the apology was "far from complete". Dr Smith said: "If Bishop Williamson is sincere in his apology and, recognising the harm caused by his original statement, recognises the truth that was the Holocaust, I invite him to visit us at the Holocaust Centre at any time so that his views in future are based on historical fact rather than 20-year-old anti-Semitic myths." Bishop Williamson has already refused to visit Auschwitz, however, and has said he will re-examine the evidence from written material. Pope Benedict XVI lifted Bishop Williamson's excommunication in January, days after the interview was broadcast, leading to an explosion of incredulous anger. The Holy See said the Pope's aim had been to bring back into the fold the Society of St Pius X, the ultraconservative movement founded by Archbishop Marcel Levebvre in 1970 in opposition the reforms of the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65. The main reforms opposed by Lefebvrists are the rendering into the vernacular of the liturgy, and the document Nostra Aetate, which repudiates the anti-Semitic charge of deicide against the Jews. The Pope, who is due to visit Israel soon where he will see the Holocaust museum Yad Vashem, was subsequently forced to reiterate the Church's official stance condemning anti-Semitism. Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles, said Bishop Williamson's statement was "not the kind of an apology that would end this matter; because it failed to address the central issue. The one thing he doesn't say, and the main thing, is that the Holocaust occurred, that it is not a fabrication, that it is not a lie," he said. "If you want to make an apology, you have to affirm the Holocaust." Jewish groups in Italy called the apology "thoroughly ambiguous" and Dieter Graumann, vice-president of the Central Council for Jews in Germany, told the Handelsblatt newspaper that the statement was "thoroughly bungled." The head of Germany's Central Council of Jews, Charlotte Knobloch, said: "With his failure to clearly retract his malicious lies, Williamson has shown again that he is a convinced anti-Semite and an incorrigible Holocaust denier," said Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, said he could not tell if Williamson's apology was genuine. "If it is, let him reflect over the coming weeks and make a proper act of penance," he said in an e-mail statement. "For our part, we seek to move ahead and resume the Catholic-Jewish dialogue with renewed vigor and determination." The Society of St. Pius X has distanced itself from Williamson's remarks and removed him as the director of its seminary in La Reja, Argentina.
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