THE Vatican said today Pope Benedict XVI was unaware that a rebel bishop had denied the existence of Nazi gas chambers before he took the decision to lift his excommunication.
"The pope had not been informed of (Bishop Richard) Williamson's position when he decided to lift his excommunication," Federico Lombardi, the Vatican's spokesman, said.
"We have said 100 times that Williamson's comments are unacceptable," said Mr Lombardi, adding that the matter was now "finished".
Mr Lombardi was reacting to a statement by Stockholm's Roman Catholic bishop who said on Wednesday the Vatican knew that Bishop Williamson had denied the existence of Nazi gas chambers two months before the pope lifted his excommunication.
Bishop Anders Arborelius said on Wednesday that the Vatican had been told of Bishop Williamson's denials which were made to Swedish public television SVT in November 2008 and aired on January 21, 2009.
"I believe there were no gas chambers ... I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps but none of them by gas chambers," Bishop Williamson said in the interview.
"There was not one Jew killed by the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies," he added.
Bishop Arborelius said that the diocese had sent the content of the interview to the Vatican in November 2008 with the warning that the program would be broadcast in January, 2009. The excommunication was lifted three days after the program went out.
Bishop Williamson was one of four excommunicated bishops that the pope agreed to take back into the Church in January 2009 to try to heal a split with traditionalist Roman Catholics, who rejected the Vatican's liberal reforms of the early 1960s.---www.news.com.au
