A bishop formerly associated with the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X has incurred excommunication again by conferring an episcopal ordination not approved by Rome.
Bishop Richard Williamson has now brought excommunication upon himself a second time.
He was excommunicated in 1988 along with three others when he received episcopal ordination without Rome’s approval at the hands of the SSPX founder, French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
But then in 2009, Benedict XVI lifted the four bishops’ excommunications in an attempt to foster reconciliation with the break-away group.
This act later caused an uproar when it came to light that Williamson has radical ideas about the Holocaust, denying the number of Jews who were gassed in Nazi concentration camps.
The Society later distanced itself from the bishop, ousting him in 2012.
Now, he has again incurred automatic excommunication, violating Church law to ordain Father Jean-Michel Faure, 73, during a ceremony in Nova Friburgo, Brazil, on Thursday.
