«Vatikanet mener en unnskyldning ikke er nok, og krever at biskop Richard Williamson offentlig tar avstand fra sine uttalelser om at Holocaust aldri fant sted. Den omstridte biskopen har bedt Vatikanet om tilgivelse for å ha kommet med uttalelsene. Men Vatikanet vil ikke godta unnskyldningen, og krever at den britiske biskopen utvetydig i full offentlighet trekker sine uttalelser tilbake.» Denne NTB-meldinga står i flere norske aviser bl.a. VL.
Zenit.org skriver videre om dette at Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, said in a verbal statement today that the apology is lacking. He told journalists that the statement «does not seem to respect the conditions established in the Feb. 4 note from the [Vatican] Secretariat of State, which stated that [Bishop Williamson] must distance himself in an absolute, unequivocal and public way from his positions regarding the Shoah.»
New York Times skriver også om dette:
The Vatican on Friday rejected an apology from a bishop whose denial of the Holocaust caused international uproar between Jews and Catholics, saying it did not meet its demand for a full and public recanting.
.. Vatican sources said this tough stand will likely make it harder for the traditionalist bishop to be fully re-admitted into the Church and lead to greater scrutiny of the society to which he belongs.
NYT legger også til at jødiske grupper er glade for denne siste reaksjonen fra Vatikanet: Jewish groups praised the Vatican for not accepting Williamson’s apology.
«The Vatican clearly understands the critical issue here,» said David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee. «Williamson still refuses to acknowledge the Holocaust as a historical fact. Until he explicitly says otherwise, he remains in the camp of the Holocaust deniers. He is not fooling anyone, least of all the Vatican.»
«We commend the Vatican for standing firm and not permitting a person who believes that the Nazi Holocaust is a lie to have any role in the Church,» said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Even before the Vatican rejected Williamson’s statement, Jewish groups branded his apology as shallow and empty. «As he clearly failed to retract his malicious lies, Williamson has again shown that he is a staunch anti-Semite and incorrigible Holocaust denier who doubts the genocide of six million Jewish people,» said Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.