Become a Member
World

Pope tells Holocaust denier to recant

February 5, 2009 15:27

BySimon Rocker, Simon Rocker

1 min read

Pope benedict XVI has responded to international pressure and ordered a maverick cleric to recant his Holocaust-denying views.

Jewish-Catholic relations were plunged into crisis last week by the Vatican’s rehabilitation of English-born Richard Williamson, along with three other bishops associated with an ultra-conservative breakaway sect.

On Wednesday, a statement from the Vatican said that Bishop Williamson must “in an absolute, public and unequivocal way, distance himself from his present position on the Shoah”. It added that the Pope had been unaware of his views on the Holocaust when an excommunication order against the four bishops was lifted last week.

It added that a condition of their re-admission to the Church is “full acceptance” of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, the historic declaration that lifted the stigma of deicide — the killing of Jesus — against the Jews and opened the way to dialogue with Judaism and other faiths.