Richard Nelson Williamson, SSPX (born 8 March 1940) is a traditionalist Catholic and a bishop of the Society of St. Pius X.

Williamson was declared to have incurred excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church in 1988 because of his unauthorized consecration as a bishop by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The Holy See lifted the excommunication in January 2009. However, after his controversial views on the Holocaust attracted widespread media coverage, the Vatican declared that “in order to be admitted to episcopal functions within the Church, (he) will have to take his distance, in an absolutely unequivocal and public fashion, from his position on the Shoah.

Early life and ministry

Williamson was born in England, the second of three boys to Anglican parents. He attended Winchester College. After taking a degree in literature at the University of Cambridge, he taught at a college in Ghana.[5] During this time he was greatly influenced by Christian writer Malcolm Muggeridge[citation needed]. During his time in Africa, Williamson met with an elderly Albert Schweitzer in Gabon.

Conversion and early ministry

In 1971 Williamson was received into the Roman Catholic Church by Father John Flanagan, an Irish missionary priest working in England. After some time as a novice at the London Oratory, Williamson entered the International Seminary of St. Pius X at Ecône Switzerland in October 1972. In 1976 he was ordained a priest by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

Williamson’s first appointment was as a professor at the German seminary of the Society in Weissbad, and after two years he was named to the St. Pius X International Seminary in Ecône, Switzerland. In 1983 he was transferred to St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Within a short time he was appointed rector of the seminary which moved to Winona, Minnesota in 1988.

Consecration and excommunication

In June 1988 Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre announced his intention to consecrate Williamson and three other priests as bishops. Lefebvre did not have a pontifical mandate for these consecrations (i.e. permission from the pope), normally required by Canon 1382 of the Code of Canon Law. On June 17, 1988 Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops sent Williamson a formal canonical warning that he would automatically incur the penalty of excommunication if he were ordained by Lefebvre without papal permission.

On June 30, 1988 Williamson and the three other priests were consecrated bishop by Archbishop Lefebvre. On July 1, 1988 Cardinal Gantin issued a declaration stating that Lefebvre, Williamson, and the three other newly-ordained bishops “have incurred ipso facto the excommunication latae sententiae reserved to the Apostolic See”.

On July 2, 1988, Pope John Paul II issued the motu proprio Ecclesia Dei, in which he reaffirmed the excommunication, and described the consecration as an act of “disobedience to the Roman pontiff in a very grave matter and of supreme importance for the unity of the Church”, and that “such disobedience — which implies in practice the rejection of the Roman primacy — constitutes a schismatic act”. Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, head of the commission responsible for implementing Ecclesia Dei, has said this resulted in a “situation of separation, even if it was not a formal schism”.

Williamson and his supporters denied the validity of the excommunication, saying that the consecrations were necessary due to a moral and theological crisis in the Catholic Church.

SSPX Bishop

After his episcopal consecration Williamson remained rector of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary. He performed various episcopal functions, including confirmations and ordinations. In 1991, he assisted in the consecration of Licínio Rangel as bishop for the Priestly Society of St. John Mary Vianney after the death of its founder, Bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer.

In 2003 Williamson was appointed rector of the Seminary of Our Lady Co-Redemptrix in La Reja, Argentina.

In 2006, Williamson ordained two priests and seven deacons in Warsaw, Poland for the Priestly Society of Saint Josaphat, a group led by the priest Basil Kovpak whose 2003 excommunication by the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church was declared null on procedural grounds, but who was definitively excommunicated in November 2007. This action was considered unlawful by the Catholic Church as Williamson violated canons 1015 §1 and 1017 of the Code of Canon Law, as he, acting outside his own jurisdiction, did not have the permission of the diocesan Bishop, and as he did not have valid dimissorial letters (cf. canons 1018 and 1019) authorizing him to perform the ordination anywhere.

In February 2009 the Society removed Williamson as rector of the La Reja seminary in the wake of the Holocaust denial controversy, and a few days later the Argentine government ordered him to leave the country.

Lifting of the excommunication

By a decree of 21 January 2009 (Protocol Number 126/2009), which was issued in response to a renewed request that Bishop Fellay made on behalf of all four bishops whom Lefebvre had consecrated on 30 June 1988, the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, by the power granted to him by Pope Benedict XVI, remitted the excommunication that they had thereby incurred, and expressed the hope “that this step will be followed by the prompt attainment of full communion with the Church by the entire Fraternity of St. Pius X, thus demonstrating true faithfulness and true recognition of the magisterium and authority of Pope with the sign of visible unity”. The decree was made public on 24 January 2009. Williamson welcomed his entry back into the church as a “great step forward”, although he continues to denounce the Vatican as liberal.

Holocaust denial and controversy

Williamson has been charged with Holocaust denial. He has denied the existence of gas chambers and has claimed that not six million but 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, citing the Leuchter report, which had been thrown out as “ridiculous”, “preposterous”, “second-hand information” and Leuchter’s opinion as of “no greater value than that of an ordinary tourist” by the judge in the trial in which it was attempted to present it as evidence”. Williamson has also praised Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel.

By voicing his views on the Holocaust in an interview with Swedish Television recorded in November 2008 and transmitted on 21 January 2009 (the day the excommunication was lifted), Williamson stirred up widespread protests and risks prosecution in Germany, where the interview was conducted and where Holocaust denial is illegal and punishable by imprisonment of up to five years. On 4 February 2009, German prosecutors announced the launch of a criminal investigation into the statements.

Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the SSPX, initially stated that Williamson was responsible for his own personal comments and that the affair did not concern the SSPX as a whole. The District Superior of the SSPX in Sweden and Germany distanced himself from anti-semitism and racism. Bishop Fellay subsequently forbade Williamson from speaking out publicly about historical or political matters, and asked Pope Benedict for forgiveness for the damage done by Williamson’s statements. Williamson himself sent the Pope a letter expressing his regret about the problems that he had caused, but did not retract his statements.

Reaction from the Jewish community was strongly negative. On 23 January, after the decree had come into effect but a day before it was published, Abraham Foxman, president of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote to Cardinal Walter Kasper in order to express his opposition to any eventual ecclesial re-integration of Bishop Williamson. Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi commented that Williamson’s views had no impact on the decision. Monsignor Robert Wister, professor of church history, said that Williamson’s comments might be “offensive and erroneous” but “not a heresy” and “not an excommunicable offense”, calling Williamson “not a heretic, but … a liar”.

The Church authorities made a number of statements on the matter. Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, who had been negotiating with Bishop Fellay, stated that he had not been aware of Williamson’s comments. Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi commented that Williamson’s views had no impact on the decision to remit his excommunication. Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano reaffirmed that Pope Benedict XVI deplored all forms of anti-semitism and that all Catholics must do the same. In an audience, the Pope expressed his “unquestionable solidarity” with the Jewish people, and stated his hope that “the memory of the Shoah will induce humanity to reflect on the unpredictable power of hate when it conquers the heart of man”. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, marked Holocaust Memorial Day by denouncing Bishop Williamson’s views, which he said were: “unfounded and unjustified”. On 4 February 2009 the Vatican Secretariat of State issued a note stating that Williamson would have to distance himself unequivocally and publicly from the opinions that he had expressed (of which, it was said, the Pope had been unaware when the excommunication was remitted) if he was to be permitted to act as a bishop within the Church. On February 12 Pope Benedict said to the Conference of American Jewish Organisations, “The hatred and contempt for men, women and children that was manifested in the Shoah (Holocaust) was a crime against humanity. This should be clear to everyone, especially to those standing in the tradition of the Holy Scriptures …”

After the Church demanded that Williamson renounce his Holocaust denial, Williamson said he would do so only after looking at the historical evidence for himself. A reporter for Der Spiegel recommended that he personally visit Auschwitz, but Williamson refused. Deborah Lipstadt, a historian who defeated Holocaust denier David Irving in a libel action brought by Irving, wrote an email to Williamson giving him sources of information that should lead him to the conclusion that the Holocaust indeed did occur.

The government of Argentina on 19 February 2009, after a request from the local Jewish community, gave him 10 days to leave the country voluntarily after which his expulsion would be ordered, because he had failed to correctly declare his true job as priest and director of a seminary when he immigrated in 2003. Interior minister Florencio Randazzo said that the irregular presence in the country of someone who had “deeply offended Argentine society and humanity with antisemitic statements” was “intolerable”. On 24 February 2009 Williamson flew from Argentina to London where a supporter, fellow Holocaust denier Michele Renouf, accompanied by a team of lawyers, said she wanted to represent and support him in getting his views across to the public.

On February 26, he formally apologized for the offense that had been caused by his comments, but did not indicate that he had changed his views. The Vatican has rejected his apology, stating that he needed to “unequivocally and publicly” withdraw his comments, and some Jewish groups have expressed disappointment at the ambiguity of his apology because he failed to address the factuality of the Holocaust.

Links

• Wikipedia: Richard Williamson
• FOX News: Report: Bishop Apologizes for Denying Holocaust
• ZENIT: Bishop Williamson Apologizes for Holocaust Comments

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