Who is that Holocaust-denying bishop whose excommunicated was lifted by the pope?
A week ago, Bishop Richard Williamson was a largely unknown fellow. Then Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of Williamson and three other bishops who belong to the Society of St. Pius X, a “traditionalist” Catholic group. A recent TV interview surfaced in which Williamson asserted that about 300,000 Jews were killed by Nazi Germany and that the whole gas chambers thing is a myth. I thought the whole thing would blow over quickly. The lifting of the excommunications – would that be communications? – was an internal church move. Clearly, the pope is no Holocaust denier. Boy, was I wrong. Williamson, a 68-year-old Englishman, became a YouTube celebrity. His interview on Swedish television has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times and denounced by Jewish groups and others. I have been asked repeatedly this week, in ordinary conversation, why the pope chose to “take back” not only a Holocaust denier, but leaders of a group that openly mocks the reforms that came out of the Se
