Richard Williamson (bishop)

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His Excellency, The Most Reverend

Richard Williamson
Confirmation June 3, 1991 - 6914530078 (Richard Williamson).jpg
Williamson in 1991
Orders
Ordination29 June 1976
by  Marcel Lefebvre
Consecration30 June 1988
by Marcel Lefebvre
Personal details
BornRichard Nelson Williamson
(1940-03-08)8 March 1940
London, England
Died29 January 2025(2025-01-29) (aged 84)
Margate, England
Denomination Traditionalist Catholic
Alma mater Winchester College, [1]
University of Cambridge, [1]
International Seminary of Saint Pius X
MottoFidelis inveniatur [2]
Ordination history of
Richard Williamson
History
Priestly ordination
Ordained by Marcel Lefebvre
Date29 June 1976
Place The International Seminary of Saint Pius X, Écône, Switzerland
Episcopal consecration
Principal consecrator Marcel Lefebvre
Co-consecrators Antônio de Castro Mayer
Date30 June 1988
Place The International Seminary of Saint Pius X, Écône, Switzerland
Episcopal succession
Bishops consecrated by Richard Williamson as principal consecrator
Jean-Michel Faure 19 March 2015
Tomás de Aquino Ferreira da Costa 19 March 2016
Gerardo Zendejas  [ pl ]11 May 2017
Giacomo Ballini 14 January 2021
Paul Morgan 14 February 2022
Michał Stobnicki [3] [4] 15 August 2022

Richard Nelson Williamson (8 March 1940 – 29 January 2025) was an English traditionalist Catholic prelate and Holocaust denier who opposed the changes in the Church brought about by the Second Vatican Council and was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. [5] He was formerly a member of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX).

Contents

In 1988, Williamson was one of four SSPX priests consecrated as bishops by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, for which Pope John Paul II declared all parties 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 a suspension from ministry remained in force.

Immediately afterward, Swedish television broadcast an interview recorded earlier at the SSPX seminary in Zaitzkofen, Bavaria. Therein, 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 charged with and convicted of Holocaust denial by the district court of Regensburg, Germany. The Holy See declared that Pope Benedict XVI had been unaware of Williamson's views when he lifted his excommunication, and that Williamson would remain suspended until he unequivocally and publicly distanced himself from his stated position. 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 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 superior general of the SSPX, refusal to stop publishing his weekly email newsletter and an unauthorised visitation to Brazil—Williamson was expelled from the SSPX in 2012. Afterwards, Williamson consecrated Jean-Michel Faure, Tomás de Aquino Ferreira da Costa, and Gerardo Zendejas  [ pl ] as bishops in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Upon the first of the three consecrations, he was again automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church. [6] [7]

Early life and ordination

Williamson was born on 8 March 1940 [8] [9] [10] in London, England. [11] He was the second of three sons born to John Blackburn Williamson, a manager at Marks & Spencer, and Helen Nelson, a Paris-born mother with American parents. [12] [13] [6] He attended Downsend School in Surrey before winning a scholarship to Winchester College. [6] [14] He then studied at Clare College, Cambridge, graduating in 1961 with a degree in English literature. [15] [8] [6] Upon graduating, he worked as a journalist in Wales, [6] and then returned to teach at his old school, Downsend in 1963. [16] He subsequently went to Ghana, where he also taught. [17] [6] When he returned to England in 1965, Williamson taught at St Paul’s School in London. [6]

Williamson, originally an Anglican, converted to the Catholic Church in 1971. [18] After a few months as a postulant with the Oratorians of Brompton Oratory, he left. [19] He became a member of the Society of Saint Pius X, a traditionalist Catholic faction founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in protest against what Lefebvre saw as the liberalism of the Second Vatican Council. [17] In common with other traditionalists, Williamson opposed the changes in the Catholic Church following the Second Vatican Council. He saw the changes as being unacceptably liberal and modernistic, and as being destructive to the Church. [20] [21] [22] Among the changes he opposed were the Church's increased openness to other Christian denominations and other religions, [20] [23] and changes in the forms of Catholic worship such as the general replacement of the Tridentine Mass with the Mass of Paul VI. [24] Williamson criticised Pope John Paul II, to whom he attributed a "weak grasp of Catholicism". [25] Williamson held that the SSPX was not schismatic, but rather was composed of true Catholics who were keeping the "complete Roman Catholic apostolic faith". [20] [21] [26] [22]

Williamson entered the International Seminary of Saint Pius X at Écône, Switzerland, and in 1976 he was ordained a priest by Lefebvre. [15] Williamson subsequently moved to the United States, where he was the rector of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Ridgefield, Connecticut from 1983, and continued in the position when the seminary moved to Winona, Minnesota in 1988, serving until 2003. [15] [27]

Consecration and excommunication

In June 1988, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre announced his intention to consecrate Williamson and three other priests (Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, and Alfonso de Galarreta) as bishops. [28] On 17 June 1988 Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops sent the four priests a formal canonical warning that they would automatically incur the penalty of excommunication if they were to be consecrated by Lefebvre without the date of papal permission. Williamson and the three other priests were nonetheless consecrated bishop on 30 June 1988 by Archbishop Lefebvre and Antônio de Castro Mayer. The next day, Cardinal Bernardin Gantin issued a declaration stating that Lefebvre, de Castro Mayer, Williamson, and the three other newly ordained bishops "have incurred ipso facto the excommunication latae sententiae reserved to the Apostolic See".[ citation needed ] On 2 July 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". [29] [30]

Controversial views

Bishop Richard Williamson in 1991 Bishop Richard Williamson.jpg
Bishop Richard Williamson in 1991

After his episcopal consecration, Williamson remained rector of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona, Minnesota. [27] He performed various episcopal functions, including confirmations and ordinations. [31] [32] [33] 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, Antônio de Castro Mayer. [34] In 2003, Williamson was appointed rector of the Seminary of Our Lady Co-Redemptrix in La Reja, Argentina [18] and according to The Guardian became a cult figure amongst the far-right seminarians. [35] In 2006, he ordained two priests and seven deacons in Warsaw, Poland, for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Priestly Society of Saint Josaphat (SSJK). [36]

Williamson celebrating Mass in 1991 Bishop Richard Williamson, celebrating Mass.jpg
Williamson celebrating Mass in 1991

Williamson was viewed as being located towards the hardline end of the traditionalist spectrum, though he did not go quite so far as to espouse sedevacantism. [37] [38] [39]

Williamson held strong views regarding gender roles. He opposed women wearing trousers or shorts, [40] [41] [42] attending college or university, or having careers. [43] [44] He urged greater "manliness" in men. [40] [42] He denounced the film The Sound of Music as "soul-rotting slush" and said that, by putting "friendliness and fun in the place of authority and rules, it invites disorder between parents and children." [45] [46] He was dismissive of Mother Teresa because of her supposedly 'liberal' views. [47]

Williamson supported conspiracy theories regarding the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the World Trade Center controlled demolition conspiracy theory, denying that the September 11 attacks were foreign terrorist attacks and claiming they were instead staged by the U.S. government. [40] [15] [48] [47] He also said that the 7 July 2005 London bombings were an "inside job" and propagated rumours about the likelihood of a nuclear attack on the London Olympics in 2012. [49]

Williamson expressed antisemitic views. [50] [51] [5] He called Jews the "enemies of Christ" and urged their conversion to Catholicism. [52] [53] [54] He said that Jews and Freemasons contributed to the "changes and corruption" in the Catholic Church. [55] [56] He stated that Jews aim at world dominion [15] [57] and believed The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to be authentic. [15] Williamson denied that he was promoting hatred, [58] identifying the contemporary enemies of the faith as "Jews, Communists and Freemasons". [56] [58] He argued that "Anti-Semitism means many things today, for instance, when one criticizes the Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip. The Church has always understood the definition of anti-Semitism to be the rejection of Jews because of their Jewish roots. This is condemned by the Church." [59]

Since the late 1980s, Williamson was accused of Holocaust denial. [56] [60] [61] [62] [63] [64] Citing the pseudoscientific Leuchter report, [59] Williamson denied that millions of Jews were murdered in Nazi concentration camps and the existence of Nazi gas chambers [18] [65] [66] and praised Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel. [56] During an interview on Swedish television recorded in Germany in November 2008, he stated: "I believe that the historical evidence is strongly against, is hugely against six million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler", [66] and "I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, but none of them in gas chambers." [18] [65] [61]

Controversy over lifting of excommunication

During the early 2000s, SSPX and the Church leadership in Rome sought to heal the rift between them. Williamson opposed compromise, [67] [68] accusing the Vatican of deceit [38] and of being under "the power of Satan". [20] [39] He was reported as viewing reconciliation between the SSPX and the Holy See as being impossible, and that some SSPX members might refuse to follow the Society in such a direction even if an agreement were reached. [15] [68] [69]

Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications of the four bishops Marcel Lefebvre had consecrated, as they had requested. [61] [65] [70] The decree was signed on 21 January 2009, the same day that Williamson's interview denying the Holocaust was broadcast on Swedish television. [65] [71] [72] The decision stirred widespread outrage, [65] particularly in Germany, where the interview was conducted and where Holocaust denial is illegal and punishable by imprisonment of up to five years. [73] Reaction from much of the worldwide Jewish community was strongly negative, and Abraham Foxman, president of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote to Cardinal Walter Kasper in order to express his opposition to any ecclesiastic re-integration of Williamson. [74] The Chief Rabbinate of Israel suspended contacts with the Vatican. The Chief Rabbi of Haifa told The Jerusalem Post that he expected Williamson to retract publicly his statements before any dialogue could resume. [75]

Pope Benedict XVI responded by stating he deplored all forms of antisemitism and that all Catholics must do the same. [76] 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", [77] and condemned the denial of the Holocaust. [78] [79] Vatican officials stated that they had not been aware of Williamson's views prior to the lifting of the excommunication; [80] [81] [82] as a result, in a July 2009 Vatican reorganisation, the Pope tightened control and supervision over reconciliation efforts with SSPX. [83] The Vatican declared that "in order to be admitted to episcopal functions within the Church, (Williamson) will have to take his distance, in an absolutely unequivocal and public fashion, from his position on the Shoah, which the Holy Father (i.e., the Pope) was not aware of when the excommunication was lifted.". [84] [1]

Williamson sent the Pope a letter expressing his regret about the problems that he had caused, but did not retract his statements. [85] [86] 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 before he would be permitted to act as a bishop within the Church. [87] [88] Williamson responded that he would do so only after looking at the historical evidence for himself. [59] On 26 February, he formally apologised for the offence that had been caused by his comments, but did not indicate that he had changed his views. [89] [90] The Vatican rejected his apology, stating that he needed to "unequivocally and publicly" withdraw his comments. Jewish groups expressed disappointment at the ambiguity of his apology, because he failed to address the consensus about the Holocaust. [89]

Bishop Bernard Fellay of the SSPX initially denied any responsibility, stating that Williamson's statements were his alone and that the affair did not concern the SSPX as a whole. [91] However, he 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. [92] He stated that if Williamson again denied the Holocaust, he would be excluded from the society. [76] [93] In a subsequent interview he likened Williamson to uranium, asserting that "It's dangerous when you have it," but you can't "simply leave it by the side of the road." [94] Williamson was removed as the head of the seminary in La Reja, Argentina in February 2009, [66] and the same month the government of Argentina asked Williamson to leave the country over irregularities with his visa, and stated that his recent statements about Jews "profoundly offend Argentinian society, the Jewish people and all of humanity". [95] On 24 February 2009, Williamson flew from Argentina to London, where he was met by Michele Renouf, a former model known for her antisemitic views, with whom he had been put in touch by Holocaust denier David Irving. [59] [96] [97] [98] Williamson subsequently repeated the denial to followers, stating that "The fact is that the 6 million people who were supposedly gassed represent a huge lie." [94]

Conviction for Holocaust denial

On 4 February 2009, German prosecutors announced the launch of a criminal investigation into Williamson's statements. [99] In October 2009, a German court, using an "order of punishment" fined Williamson €12,000 after finding him guilty of Holocaust denial. [100] Williamson denied the charges and appealed, paving the way for a full hearing that Williamson did not need to attend. [101] He did not attend the trial, on orders from his society, on charges of inciting racial hatred in Regensburg, Germany, on 16 April 2010, and was found guilty. The court reduced the fine to €10,000. [102] Lawyers from both sides appealed the fine; the lawyer Williamson hired was the former leader of the Wiking-Jugend, an outlawed Neo-Nazi group. [103] The Society of St. Pius X ordered Williamson to find a new lawyer under threat of expulsion. [103] His appeal was held on 11 July 2011. The lower court's decision was upheld at appeal, but the fine was reduced to €6,500, reportedly due to Williamson's financial circumstances. [104] [105]

On 22 February 2012 the higher court dismissed this conviction, finding that the initial charges against Williamson had been inadequately drawn, having failed to specify the nature of his offence, or at what point his filmed comments came under German jurisdiction, or in what sense he be held liable for failing to prevent their publication in Germany. [106] On 16 January 2013, he was prosecuted and convicted again, but this time with a much-reduced fine of €1,600 because of his "unemployed state". He refused to pay the fine and appealed again, [107] but his appeal was dismissed. [108] On 31 January 2019 the European Court of Human Rights ruled against Williamson’s attempt to overturn a conviction for Holocaust denial on the grounds of free speech. [109] [110] [111]

Expulsion from SSPX

In August 2012, Williamson administered the sacrament of confirmation to about 100 laypeople at the Benedictine Monastery of the Holy Cross in Nova Friburgo, Brazil, during an unauthorised visit to the State of Rio de Janeiro. The society's South American district superior, Christian Bouchacourt, protested against his action on the SSPX website, saying that it was "a serious act against the virtue of obedience." [112] In early October 2012, the leadership of the SSPX gave Williamson a deadline to declare his submission, instead of which he published an "open letter" asking for the resignation of the Superior General. [113] On 4 October 2012, the Society expelled Williamson in a "painful decision" citing the failures "to show respect and obedience deserved by his legitimate superiors". [114]

Final years and death

On his return from Argentina, Williamson settled in Broadstairs, Kent. [115] After his expulsion from SSPX, he created the Priestly Union of Marcel Lefebvre, later known as “SSPX Resistance,” gathering Catholics who opposed the SSPX's compromising with the Vatican. [115] [116]

Williamson continued to espouse anti-semitic views including that Jews were manipulating the stock market in order to start a world war. [117] [116] He suggested that Jews caused the COVID pandemic in order to reduce the population and enslave the world. [117] [116] [115] [118] In 2023, he appeared on Iranian television on which he blamed Jews for the assassination of John Kennedy, for 9/11, and for the war between Russia and Ukraine. [116]

After his return to the UK, Williamson held regular traditional Latin Masses near his home, as well as at a library in Earlsfield, London. [118] The bookings at the library were cancelled when his views became known in 2022. [118] [116]

Williamson independently consecrated six bishops. [115] On 19 March 2015, Williamson consecrated Frenchman Jean-Michel Faure, a former member of the SSPX, as a bishop in a ceremony in Nova Friburgo, Brazil. Like Williamson, Faure opposed reconciliation discussions between the SSPX and the Catholic Church. As this was done without papal mandate, both Faure and Williamson incurred a latae sententiae excommunication. [119] The SSPX condemned the consecration as "not at all comparable to the consecrations of 1988" and as proof that Williamson and Faure "no longer recognize the Roman authorities, except in a purely rhetorical manner". [120]

Exactly one year later, Williamson consecrated Tomás de Aquino Ferreira da Costa as a bishop in Brazil. This consecration also took place without papal approval. [121] Williamson consecrated a third bishop, Mexican-American prelate Gerardo Zendejas, on 11 May 2017 in Vienna, Virginia. [122] [123]

In late December 2022, Williamson stated he had privately consecrated another bishop, Giacomo Ballini, the leader of the Cork branch of the SSPX Resistance in 2021. [124] [123] [125] On 15 August 2022, he consecrated Michał Stobnicki as a bishop in Poland. [126] [123] [127] Also in 2022, it was reported that Williamson consecrated Englishman Paul Morgan as a bishop on 14 February 2022 in Cork in secret, with Bishop Ballini acting as co-consecrator [128]

On 12 January 2024, it was reported that Williamson performed a conditional episcopal consecration for Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò to the episcopate, during which he described Pope Francis as a "false pastor and servant of Satan". [129] [115] [123] [130]

On 24 January 2025, Williamson had cerebral haemorrhage and was hospitalised near his home in Kent. [131] [115] He died in Margate on 29 January, at the age of 84. [6] [5] [132] He was buried on 26 February 2025.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Owen, Richard; Gledhill, Ruth (5 February 2009). "Pope insists Bishop Richard Williamson must renounce Holocaust denial". The Times . Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  2. ↑ 1 Cor 4:2  DRB. NVUL : that a man be found faithful · Latin: ut fidelis quis inveniatur
  3. ↑ "Bp Michał Stobnicki – NON POSSUMUS". FSSPXR NON POSSUMUS (in Polish). 15 July 2023. Archived from the original on 15 July 2023. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  4. ↑ "Eleison Comments DCCCXXXV". St. Marcel Initiative. 15 July 2023. Archived from the original on 20 July 2023. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 Obituaries, Telegraph (30 January 2025). "Richard Williamson, outlaw bishop who denied the Holocaust and embarrassed the Vatican". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Nossiter, Adam (4 February 2025). "Richard Williamson, Renegade Priest and Holocaust Denier, Dies at 84". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  7. ↑ "Scomunicato il vescovo negazionista monsignor Williamson". Il Giornale (in Italian). 20 March 2015. Archived from the original on 10 January 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  8. 1 2 "BISHOP WILLIAMSON: HIS LIFE AND TIMES". The Globe and Mail. 11 February 2009. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  9. ↑ "Profile: Bishop Richard Williamson". 16 April 2010. Archived from the original on 4 February 2019. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  10. ↑ Obituaries, Telegraph (30 January 2025). "Richard Williamson, outlaw bishop who denied the Holocaust and embarrassed the Vatican". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  11. ↑ Nossiter, Adam (4 February 2025). "Richard Williamson, Renegade Priest and Holocaust Denier, Dies at 84". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  12. ↑ "The Voice of the Trumpet". The Scrum Den with Neil McDougall. 11 November 2023. 27:32 minutes in.
  13. ↑ Allen White, David (2018). The Voice of the Trumpet. Marcel Editions. pp. 11–12. ISBN   978-1940306162.
  14. ↑ Allen White, David (2018). The Voice of the Trumpet. Marcel Editions. pp. 19–22. ISBN   978-1940306162.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Arco, Anna (5 March 2008). "Lefebvrists face crisis as bishop is exposed as 'dangerous' anti-Semite". The Catholic Herald . Archived from the original on 25 June 2008.
  16. ↑ Allen White, David (2018). The Voice of the Trumpet. Marcel Editions. p. 51. ISBN   978-1940306162.
  17. 1 2 Taylor, Jerome Taylor (26 February 2009). "Bishop on the run: Holocaust denier back in Britain | Expelled from Argentina for his views on the Holocaust, a Catholic sect leader returns to country where he was born". The Independent . London. Archived from the original on 17 September 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2009.
  18. 1 2 3 4 Walker, Peter (25 February 2009). "Profile: Richard Williamson | British bishop's controversial views extend beyond the Holocaust to the September 11 attacks, Freemasons and women". The Guardian . London. Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  19. ↑ "Richard Williamson, former bishop expelled from Society of Saint Pius X, dies at 84". La croix international. 30 January 2025. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  20. 1 2 3 4 Moylan, Martin J. (11 December 1988). "US Seminary of front line in Catholic Doctrine Battle". The Dallas Morning News .
  21. 1 2 Neuerbourg, Hanns (1 July 1988). "New Traditionalist Bishop Says Fight Just Beginning". The Associated Press.
  22. 1 2 McAteer, Michael (3 April 1989). "Liberalism destroying church, bishop says". The Toronto Star .
  23. ↑ Wilkins, Emma (19 September 1988). "Bishop attacks Rome 'poison'". The Times . No. 63,190. London. p. 3.
  24. ↑ D'Antonio, Michael (15 December 1984). "Conservatives crusade against Vatican II". The Indianapolis News . p. 7.
  25. ↑ Owen, Richard (21 April 2003). "Pope woos conservatives expelled for rebellion". Times Online . London. Archived from the original on 10 February 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  26. ↑ Stowell, Linda (13 August 1988). "Ousted bishop says pope ruining church". Houston Chronicle .
  27. 1 2 "Holocaust-denying bishop lived in Minn. 15 years". MPR News . 8 February 2009. Archived from the original on 8 February 2019. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  28. ↑ "Lettre de Jean-Paul II à Mgr Lefebvre du 9 juin 1988". La Porte Latine (in French). 9 June 1988. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  29. ↑ "Apostolic Letter 'Ecclesia Dei' of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II". La Santa Sede . 2 July 1988. Archived from the original on 29 January 2015. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  30. ↑ Apostolic letter Ecclesia Dei Archived 29 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine (2 July 1988). Vatican.va. Accessed 18 May 2017.
  31. ↑ "Our Lady of Fatima sets confirmation, dedication". Richmond Times-Dispatch . 25 September 1999. p. 24.
  32. ↑ Scarlet, Peter (28 March 1992). "Traditionalist Catholic Bishop says Council Devastated Church". The Salt Lake Tribune. p. 12.
  33. ↑ Wilkowske, Tom (25 June 1989). "Four ordained in Winona". The Winona Daily News. p. 3.
  34. ↑ Rees, Wilhelm (2014). Ökumene (in German). LIT Verlag Münster. p. 109. ISBN   978-3-643-50554-5.
  35. ↑ Walker, Peter (25 February 2009). "Profile: Richard Williamson". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  36. ↑ "Ukrainian priest excommunicated". Byzantine Catholic Church in America. 21 November 2007. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2019– via Catholic World News. SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson illicitly ordained two SSJK priests and seven deacons.
  37. ↑ Smoltczyk, Alexander (18 June 2007). "Uups! – et orbi: Ein Damenbesuch und andere unbekannte Seiten des Papstes". Spiegel Online . Archived from the original on 9 November 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  38. 1 2 Owen, Richard; Gledhill, Ruth (29 August 2005). "Pope opens talks with Latin Mass renegades". The Times . London.[ dead link ]
  39. 1 2 McAteer, Michael (15 April 1989). "Maverick bishop confirms Lefebvre's way". Toronto Star .
  40. 1 2 3 "Bishop's homily ranges from Columbus to 'JFK'". The Salt Lake Tribune . 28 March 1992. p. A12.
  41. ↑ Farney, Dennis (23 August 1995). "Paranoia Is Becoming An Article of Faith in a Tiny Kansas Town – A Split Among Its Catholics Is as Much About Suspicion As It Is About Doctrine". The Wall Street Journal .
  42. 1 2 Papadakis, Mary (14 July 2002). "Catholic right over 'sect'". Sunday Herald Sun .
  43. ↑ Williamson, Richard (1 September 2001). "Bishop Williamson's Letters | Girls at University | Emancipation's Mess of Pottage (Gen. XXV, 29–34)". St. Césaire, QC: SSPX | District of Canada. Archived from the original on 2 November 2007. Retrieved 10 February 2019. A woman can [...] do a good imitation of handling ideas, but then she will not be properly thinking as woman. [...] Did this lawyeress check her hair-do just before coming into court? If she did, she is one distracted lawyer. If she did not, she is one distorted woman. [...] Alas, women going to university is part of the whole massive onslaught on God's Nature which characterizes our times.
  44. ↑ Pigott, Robert (4 February 2009). "Profile: Bishop Richard Williamson". BBC News . Archived from the original on 4 February 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  45. ↑ Twiston-Davies, Bess (26 February 2009). "Bishop Williamson, shrinks, and The Sound of Music". Timesonline . Archived from the original on 2 March 2009. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  46. ↑ Williamson, Richard (November 2009). "The Film 'The Sound of Music'". Leofec Network. Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2019. Sure enough, [...] she gives a dazzling demonstration of the superiority of liberty and equality over stuffy old Austrian ways! [...] As for cleanness, many films may be worse than the Sound of Music, but stop and think – are youth, physical attractiveness and being in love the essence of marriage? Can you imagine this Julie Andrews staying with the Captain if 'the romance went out of their marriage'? Would she not divorce him and grab his children from him to be her toys? Such romance is not actually pornographic but it is virtually so, in other words all the elements of pornography are there, just waiting to break out. One remembers the media sensation when a few years later Julie Andrews appeared topless in another film. That was no sensation, just a natural development for one rolling canine female.
  47. 1 2 Poggioli, Sylvia (25 February 2009). "Former Student: Bishop Often Attacked Judaism". NPR. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  48. ↑ Koch, Einar (4 February 2009). "Bishop Williamson's mad conspiracy theories — How could the pope rehabilitate him? | 'The Jews created Holocaust' and 'US planned 9/11'". Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  49. ↑ Coppen, Luke (26 July 2012). "Morning Catholic must-reads: 26/07/12". Catholic Herald . Archived from the original on 13 November 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  50. ↑ "Traditional Catholicism and the Teachings of Bishop Williamson. J. Christopher Pryor, Journal for the Study of Antisemitism (Vol. I, Issue 2, p. 233 2009)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 June 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  51. ↑ Weisbord, Robert G.; Sillanpoa, Wallace P. (1992). The Chief Rabbi, the Pope, and the Holocaust: An Era in Vatican-Jewish Relationships. New Brunswick; London: Transaction Publishers. p. 194. ISBN   978-0-88738-416-5. Williamson denies that Catholics and Jews worship the same god. Jews worship the god of the Talmud who is 'a devil, an absolute devil'.
  52. ↑ Legge, Gordon (15 April 1989). "Holocaust stance probed". Calgary Herald.
  53. ↑ "The Holocaust: Zeal and ignorance". The Windsor Star. 20 April 1989. p. A.10.
  54. ↑ Williamson, Richard (17 May 2010). "Holocaust-Leugner Williamson: 'Es geht um Beweise'" [Holocaust denier Williamson: 'It's about evidence'] (Interview) (in German). Munich: Süddeutsche Zeitung. Archived from the original on 30 July 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2019. Dem Heiligen Paulus gemäß seien die 'Juden geliebt um der Väter willen, aber unsere Gegner um des Evangeliums willen'. Letztlich bedürften 'alle Menschen zu ihrer Erlösung Christus, ... auch die Juden'.
  55. ↑ Williamson, Richard (3 October 2000). "Bishops' Meeting With Cardinal Hoyos". Leofec Network. Archived from the original on 12 February 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2019. I do believe that behind the Cardinal, as I said last month, there are villains at work, either Judeo-masons or prelates working for Judeo-masonry, who are far more sinister than this Cardinal is. These villains, I do believe, are using front-men like the Cardinal for as long as he is useful to their Revolution. He is, in Lenin's phrase, "a useful idiot", who will be cast aside the moment he no longer serves their forward march to the One-World-Religion. — Quoted by: Allen Jr., John L. (30 March 2001). "Pope in talks with Lefevbre group". National Catholic Reporter . Kansas City, MO. Archived from the original on 5 February 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  56. 1 2 3 4 Fox, Thomas C. (6 January 2009). "Lefebvre movement: long, troubled history with Judaism". National Catholic Reporter. Kansas City, MO. Archived from the original on 16 July 2018. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
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  58. 1 2 Williamson, Richard (6 February 2008). "Interview with Bishop Williamson regarding controversial positions" (Interview). Interviewed by Stephen Heiner. True Restoration. Archived from the original on 8 February 2019. Retrieved 8 February 2019. Only a fool is against Jews simply because they are Jews. There can be very few directors of Traditional Catholic seminaries, who have invited, as I once did, a Jewish rabbi to address seminarians. [...] [O]nly a Catholic who does not understand his faith is not against the enemies of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I am against Jews or Gentiles who are enemies of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
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  63. ↑ McAteer, Michael (21 April 1989). "Catholic bishop won't be charged for remarks about Jews, police say". The Toronto Star. p. A10.
  64. ↑ McAteer, Michael (14 April 1989). "Chief Canadian bishop denounces clergyman's anti-Jewish comments". The Toronto Star. p. A11.
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  72. ↑ CBCP News, Vatican: Bishop's Holocaust statements 'strongly rejected' by pope
  73. ↑ "Reaktioner i Tyskland – redan före sändning!" [Reactions in Germany – even before shipment!] (in Swedish). SVT. 20 January 2009. Archived from the original on 31 January 2009.
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  81. ↑ "Letter of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to the Bishops of the Catholic Church concerning the remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre (March 10, 2009)". La Santa Sede . 10 March 2009. Retrieved 27 August 2018. I have been told that consulting the information available on the internet would have made it possible to perceive the problem early on. I have learned the lesson that in the future in the Holy See we will have to pay greater attention to that source of news. I was saddened by the fact that even Catholics who, after all, might have had a better knowledge of the situation, thought they had to attack me with open hostility.
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  89. 1 2 "Vatican rejects bishop's apology | The Vatican has rejected an apology by a British bishop who denied the full extent of the Holocaust". BBC News . 27 February 2009. Archived from the original on 7 October 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2009.
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  95. ↑ "Lefebvrist bishop leaves Argentina". Catholic News Agency. 25 February 2009. Archived from the original on 30 November 2024. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
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  115. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Richard Williamson, former bishop expelled from Society of Saint Pius X, dies at 84". La croix international. 30 January 2025. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  116. 1 2 3 4 5 Team, Searchlight (24 October 2023). "No mea culpa, as Bishop Williamson re‑emerges from the shadows". Searchlight. Archived from the original on 7 August 2024. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  117. 1 2 "'Covid is creation of the Jews': Bishop's sick claim". SundayWorld.com. 26 September 2020. Archived from the original on 17 December 2024. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
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  122. ↑ "Statement from Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge on the Consecration of Father Gerardo Zendejas, Member of an Independent Church". www.arlingtondiocese.org. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
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  127. ↑ "Eleison Comments DCCCXXXV". St. Marcel Initiative. 15 July 2023. Archived from the original on 20 July 2023. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  128. ↑ "Un évêque pour la sainte Église" [A bishop for the holy Church](PDF) (in French). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 August 2023.
  129. ↑ Peloso, Francesco (16 January 2024). "Viganò supera a destra i lefebvriani: il fronte tradizionalista si divide dopo Fiducia supplicans". Domani (in Italian). Archived from the original on 16 January 2024.
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  131. ↑ Galici, Francesca (25 January 2025). "In gravi condizioni il vescovo tradizionalista Richard Williamson: ecco chi è". Il Giornale . Archived from the original on 26 January 2025. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
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