MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK Bishop who denies Holocaust must leave Argentina

British born Bishop Richard Williamson

Argentina told a Roman Catholic bishop who denied the Holocaust and was reinstated to the church last month by Pope Benedict XVI to leave the country or face expulsion.

Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo said Thursday in a statement that UK born Bishop Richard Williamson's denial of the Holocaust in an interview with a Swedish television station had "deeply hurt Argentine society, the Jewish people and humanity." The minister ordered the cleric to leave the South American country within 10 days. Randazzo also said Williamson had lied "repeatedly" about his activities in Argentina and "has concealed the true motive for his stay in the country" because he said he was an employee of a non-governmental group rather than declaring "his true activity" as the director of a seminary. Williamson was removed as the head of the seminary last week by the ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X in La Reja after reports of his denial of the Holocaust prompted action from the Vatican. He had been serving as rector of the seminary for the past five years. The Pope's Jan. 24 decision to lift the excommunication of Williamson and three other traditionalist priests who broke with the church in the 1980s prompted criticism from Jewish groups and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Pope has called for Williamson to retract the remarks before he can be officially reinstated. In the Swedish television interview, Williamson said "historical evidence is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy by Adolf Hitler"