The “Bishop” Richard Williamson Holocaust denial story is not going away: Bishop’s apology for Holocaust denial fails to placate Vatican and Germany.

BISHOP RICHARD Williamson, whose denial of the Holocaust provoked an international outcry, could face further problems in Germany and in his strained relations with the Holy See despite his apology on Thursday for those comments.

Yesterday the Vatican’s senior spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi appeared to reject the bishop’s apology and German justice minister Brigitte Zypries said Germany might issue an arrest warrant for the bishop on hate crime charges. Given that the ultra-traditionalist bishop made Holocaust-denial comments in a recent Swedish TV interview, recorded in Germany, he could be prosecuted in Germany where it is a crime to deny the Holocaust.

For much of the last two months, Pope Benedict XVI has struggled to contain the international outcry prompted by his decision to lift the 1988 excommunication of four “Lefebvre” bishops, including Bishop Williamson, all members of the ultra-traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X, founded in 1970 by French bishop Marcel Lefebrve. The Vatican claimed that Pope Benedict was unaware of the bishop’s controversial views when he lifted his excommunication.