Bishop Williamson has left Argentina, after the government gave him 10 days to leave the country.
According to the Argentina Government, Bishop Williamson’s beliefs “deeply shocked Argentine society, the Jewish people and all of humanity, to deny a proven historical truth”.
He had also deceived Argentina’s immigration services and had repeatedly forged the real reason for his stay in the country. Bishop Williamson was ousted earlier this month by the Argentine seminary, 40km west of Buenos Aires, where he was a leading figure.
The conservative Roman Catholic Saint Pius X Society for Latin America said the bishop’s comments “in no way reflect the position of our congregation”.
Argentina’s 300,000-strong Jewish community, the largest in South America, praised the expulsion announcement.
was not impressed media was waiting at the airport:
The English bishop whose excommunication was lifted by the Pope despite the cleric’s denial of the full extent of the Holocaust flies in to Heathrow this morning after being threatened with expulsion by Argentina.
Richard Williamson, who converted to Roman Catholicism as a young man, has contacted the revisionist historian David Irving, asking how to present his views on the Holocaust without arousing controversy, The Times has learnt.
Bishop Williamson, of the ultraconservative Society of St Pius X, scuffled with a reporter at Buenos Aires airport, raising his fist and apparently shoving him as he hurried to catch his British Airways flight for London.
The bishop will be met at Heathrow by the socialite Michele Renouf with a legal team. Ms Renouf, a former beauty queen, denies that she is anti-Semitic but has described Judaism as a “repugnant and hate-filled religionâ€.
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Update: Williamson has issued a statement of apology through the Catholic news site Zenit. It took being kicked out a seminary, being kicked out of a country and serious pressure from the Vatican to get him to acknowledge the harm his opinions have caused.
“…the Holy Father and my superior, Bishop Bernard Fellay, have requested that I reconsider the remarks I made on Swedish television four months ago, because their consequences have been so heavy.”
