Bishop Williamson denied permission to visit Australia

June 11, 2014

Bishop Richard Williamson, the controversial traditionalist prelate who was ousted last year from the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), has been denied permission to visit Australia.

Bishop Williamson has planned to visit Australia later this month. But when a Jewish group questioned immigration officials, pointing out that the prelate had been fined by a German court for public statements denying the Holocaust, his visa was revoked.

One of four SSPX bishops consecrated by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in defiance of the Vatican, Bishop Williamson became the focus of international attention in 2008, when an interview including his views on the Holocaust was broadcast just as Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of those four breakaway bishops. In subsequent months his extreme views created tension between Bishop Williamson and his SSPX colleagues, eventually leading to his dismissal from the traditionalist group. Like the other SSPX bishops he remains suspended from episcopal ministry.

 

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Further information:

• Holocaust-denying bishop’s visit axed (Jewish News)
• German appeals court affirms conviction of breakaway bishop for Holocaust denial (CWN, 4/11)