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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Merkel joins Papal Holocaust row | Merkel joins Papal Holocaust row |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the Vatican's clarifications over the readmission of a bishop who queries the Holocaust do not go far enough. | German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the Vatican's clarifications over the readmission of a bishop who queries the Holocaust do not go far enough. |
| "In my opinion these clarifications are not yet sufficient," Mrs Merkel said. | "In my opinion these clarifications are not yet sufficient," Mrs Merkel said. |
| A row erupted last month after Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson, who had said no Nazi gas chambers existed. | |
| Pope Benedict has distanced himself from those beliefs and expressed "full and indisputable solidarity" with Jews. | Pope Benedict has distanced himself from those beliefs and expressed "full and indisputable solidarity" with Jews. |
| "This should not be allowed to pass without consequences," Mrs Merkel said at a news conference in Berlin. | |
| "This is not just a matter, in my opinion, for the Christian, Catholic and Jewish communities in Germany but the Pope and the Vatican should clarify unambiguously that there can be no denial," she said. | |
| Vatican 'unaware' | |
| Last November, British-born Bishop Williamson angered Jewish leaders across the world when he told Swedish TV: "I believe there were no gas chambers [during World War II]." | |
| Richard Williamson's interview | |
| He said he believed that up "300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps but none of them by gas chambers". | |
| He is one of four bishops, who are members of the Society of Pius X, whose excommunication was lifted last month by the Pope. | |
| The Society of St Pius X was founded by a French Archbishop, Marcel Lefebvre, in 1970 as a protest against the Second Vatican Council's reforms on religious freedom and pluralism. | |
| The Vatican says it was unaware of Bishop Williamson's views on the Holocaust when the decision was made to readmit the group. | |
| About six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. |