The Simon Wiesenthal Center today reacted to the report that the schismatic Catholic Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) had expelled Holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson as “belated cosmetic surgery that fails to address any of the issues connected with the SSPX’s deep rooted anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.” Reacting to the announcement, Mark Weitzman, the Director of Government Affairs for the Wiesenthal Center and the author of a forthcoming study of antisemitism noted that the radical Catholic traditionalist movement “expelled Williamson, not for his hate but in their words for ‘refusing to show due respect and obedience to his lawful superiors.’”

Weitzman also said that, “Until the SSPX publicly rejects those hateful positions and accepts the Vatican II teachings that laid the foundation for the historic improvement in the relationship between Catholics and Jews, the expulsion of Williamson is no more than cosmetic surgery that attempts to cover up the ugly reality of anti-Semitism and hate that is imbedded in the theology of the SSPX.”     

Earlier this month, the Wiesenthal Center applauded the Vatican’s announcement that talks aimed at readmitting the schismatic group into the Church had broken down over, among other issues, the Church’s insistence that Vatican II be accepted by the SSPX and that Williamson recant his denial of the Holocaust.

            The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenth