Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi has said that last week's apology by the controversial bishop Richard Williamson, whose excommunication was lifted last month in spite of his repeated denial of the Holocaust, does not go far enough. Williamson released a statement on Thursday saying: "I can truthfully say that I regret having made such remarks, and that if I had known beforehand the full harm and hurt to which they would give rise, especially to the Church, but also to survivors and relatives of victims of injustice under the Third Reich, I would not have made them. To all souls that took honest scandal from what I said, before God I apologize."
Lombardi told journalists that the statement "does not seem to respect the conditions established in the February 4 note from the [Vatican] Secretariat of State, which stated that [Williamson] must distance himself in an absolute, unequivocal and public way from his positions regarding the Shoah." The spokesman also noted the prelate's declaration was not a letter directed to Pope Benedict or to the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which oversees the Church's efforts to heal the schism with the Society of St Pius X.
