WORLD BRIEFING / VATICAN CITY
Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications of four traditionalist bishops, including a Holocaust denier whose rehabilitation sparked outrage among Jewish groups.
The four bishops were excommunicated 20 years ago after they were consecrated by the late ultraconservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent. The Vatican said Benedict is trying to bring Lefebvre’s followers back into the Vatican fold.
The move came days after one of the four, Richard Williamson, was shown in a Swedish TV interview saying that historical evidence “is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed.”
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