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Holocaust denier Williamson is dead

The Holocaust denier and British spiritual Richard Williamson convicted of sedition in Germany is dead. He had ensured one of the largest scandals in the pontificate of the German Pope Benedict.

British spiritual Richard Williamson, known as Holocaust denied, is dead. He died late Wednesday evening at the age of 84 after a hemorrhage in the hospital, the German section of the Arch-Conservative Pius Brotherhood announced on Thursday in Stuttgart.

The Pius Brotherhood excluded Williamson in 2012 due to a lack of obedience from its community. He had repeatedly denied the Holocaust since the late 1980s and described it as an “invention of the Jews”. After being excluded from the Pius Brotherhood, he was one of the so-called sedis vacantists who deny the Pope's legitimacy and accuse the Catholic Church of betrayal faith.

Heavy crisis in the Vatican

In October 2008 Williamson triggered a scandal in the Catholic Church with his claims. At that time, he denied the existence of gas chambers in an interview for Swedish television in the association of the Association near Regensburg in an interview for Swedish television and the millions of Jews by the Nazis.

When the statements became known in 2009, the case quickly developed into a serious crisis for Pope Benedict XVI. And the Vatican. Almost at the same time as the interview became known, the Pope raised the excommunication of Williamson and three other Pius bishops for years.

In 1988 Williamson was consecrated to the bishop with three other clergymen from the founder of the Pius Brotherhood, Archbishop Marcel Lefbvre, without papal consent. They were then excommunicated by Rome.

Pope Benedict XVI. was heavily criticized for the abolition of excommunication worldwide.

Sentenced to a fine

Williamson was legally sentenced by the German judiciary in 2014. In 2019, he wanted to avert his conviction for sedition with a lawsuit against Germany before the European Court of Human Rights – without success. The Strasbourg judges pointed out his lawsuit that his right to freedom of expression was violated as unfounded.

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