Richard Williamson (bishop)

Richard Nelson Williamson (8 March 1940 – 29 January 2025) was an English traditionalist Catholic bishop. He was known for being against the changes in the church brought about by the Second Vatican Council. In 1988, Williamson was one of four Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) priests illicitly consecrated as bishops.

Early life
Williamson was born on 8 March 1940 in London,Richard Williamson, catholic-hierarchy.org England. Williamson attended Winchester College before going on to study at Clare College, Cambridge, where he received a degree in English literature. 

Career
After graduating, he taught at a college in Ghana for a short time. He was originally an Anglican, but became a Roman Catholic in 1971. He became a member of the Society of Saint Pius X, as he was against liberalism in the Second Vatican Council. In 1976, he became a priest after being supported by Marcel Lefebvre.

Williamson moved to the United States and became rector of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Ridgefield, Connecticut in 1983.

Controversial views
Holocaust denial
A controversial figure, Williamson has said that he believed that no more than 200,000 to 300,000 Jews were killed during the Holocaust and that Nazi Germany did not use gas chambers. Because of this, he was charged with and convicted of Holocaust denial by the district court of Regensburg, Germany. Pope Benedict XVI did not know Williamson's views when he ended his excommunication. He later said that Williamson would remain suspended from his episcopal role until his changed his Holocaust views. In 2010, Williamson was convicted of incitement in a German court in relation to those views. He was convicted again on this charge in a retrial in early 2013."German court convicts British Holocaust-denying bishop", Haaretz/Associated Press, 16 January 2013

Conspiracy theories
Williamson supports conspiracy theories about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and that the World Trade Center was destroyed on purpose by the U.S. government. He has also said that the 7 July 2005 London bombings were an "inside job" and believed there was going to be a nuclear attack on the London Olympics in 2012.

In Argentina, Williamson became a cult figure for the far-right seminarians.Profile: Richard Williamson

Death
On 25 January 2025, Williamson was hospitalized in Margate, England after having a brain hemorrhage. He was given his last rites at hospital the same day. He died four days later on 29 January, at the age of 84.

References

Other websites
 Eleison Comments A weekly column in five languages by Bishop Richard Williamson.

Category:1940 births
Category:2025 deaths
Category:Deaths from cerebral hemorrhage
Category:Roman Catholic bishops
Category:People from Buckinghamshire
Category:Conspiracy theorists
Category:English Roman Catholic priests
Category:People from London
Category:Catholicism-related controversies