Lefebvrist bishop leaves Argentina

Rome, Italy, Feb 25, 2009 / 20:08 pm

Lefebvrist Bishop Richard Williamson left Argentina on Tuesday, after the government gave him ten days to leave the country or face expulsion.

The news was confirmed by a spokesman for the South American district of the Society of St. Pius X.  Television crews covered the bishop’s departure from the Buenos Aires international airport.

Williamson sported a baseball cap and sunglasses as he boarded a British Airways jet.  It was not known where his final destination would be but the Argentinean media speculated he would be traveling to Europe.

Williamson has been the target of harsh criticism throughout the world over his comments on Swedish television denying the Holocaust.  The controversy surrounding him erupted in January when Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication imposed on him and three other bishops ordained in 1988 by schismatic Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

The Vatican asked Williamson to recant his position, but he replied that he needed time to “study history.”

Last week, the government of Argentina asked him to leave the country over irregularities with his visa, underscoring that his recent statements about Jews “profoundly offend the Argentinean society, the Jewish people and all of humanity.”

Just recently the Society of St. Pius X removed Williamson as director of the group’s seminary in Buenos Aires.