Richard Williamson
English Catholic bishop
Died when: 84 years 327 days (1018 months)Star Sign: Pisces
Richard Nelson Williamson (born 8 March 1940) was a British independent Traditionalist Catholic bishop who opposes the changes in the church brought about by the Second Vatican Council.
He was originally a member of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX).He was subsequently excommunicated; this was lifted in 2009.
Williamson was convicted in German courts of denying the Holocaust and incitement related to those views.He incurred a latae sententiae excommunication in 2015 for consecrating a bishop without the pope's approval.
Due to other actions, Williamson was expelled from the SSPX in 2012.In 1988, Williamson was one of four SSPX priests who were illicitly consecrated as bishops by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, for which Pope John Paul II declared had incurred ipso facto automatic excommunication.
The validity of the excommunication has always been denied by the SSPX, who, citing canon law, argue that the consecrations were permissible due to a crisis in the Catholic Church.
The excommunications, including that of Williamson, were lifted on 21 January 2009 but the suspension of the bishops from ministry within the Catholic Church remained in force.
Certain exceptions were granted by Popes Benedict XVI and Francis as a way to foster dialogue and goodwill and to allow the priests to exercise limited ministry despite their canonically irregular situation.
Immediately afterward, Swedish television broadcast an interview recorded earlier at the SSPX's seminary in Zaitzkofen, Bavaria.During the interview, Williamson expressed his belief that no more than 200,000 to 300,000 Jews were killed during the Holocaust and that Nazi Germany did not use gas chambers.
Based upon these statements, he was immediately charged with and convicted of Holocaust denial by a German court.The Holy See declared that Pope Benedict had been unaware of Williamson's views when he lifted the excommunication of the four bishops.
He said that Williamson would remain suspended from his episcopal functions until he unequivocally and publicly distanced himself from that stated position on the Holocaust.
In 2010, Williamson was convicted of incitement in a German court in relation to those views; the conviction was later vacated on appeal.
He was convicted again of this charge in a retrial in early 2013.Williamson appealed again, but his appeal was rejected.
After a number of incidents, including calling for the resignation of Bernard Fellay as the Superior General of the Society of St.
Pius X, refusal to stop publishing his weekly email and an unauthorised visitation to Brazil, Williamson was expelled from the Society in 2012.
After leaving the Society, Williamson consecrated Jean-Michel Faure, Tomás de Aquino Ferreira da Costa, and as bishops in 2015, 2016, and 2017.
Because of these consecrations, he was excommunicated latae sententiae from the Catholic Church again in 2015.
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