Pope Benedict XVI has called on Bishop Richard Williamson, the Holocaust-denier whose excommunication was recently lifted by the Vatican, to recant his views:
The Vatican's action yesterday came in the form of a statement from its secretary of state's office. The statement said that Benedict was unaware of Williamson's comments - some of which were made recently on Swedish television, but some of which date back much further - when he decided to lift the excommunication... "Bishop Williamson, in order to claim admission to episcopal functions in the church, must distance himself in absolutely unequivocal and public fashion from his positions regarding the Shoah, which were not known by the Holy Father when the excommunication was lifted," the Vatican said, using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust.
It's not what I would have done. What's the point? If Williamson recants on demand, as it were, in order to be able to 'claim admission to episcopal functions in the church', the chances that his recantation will reflect a genuine change of mind and heart are small, to put it mildly. An insincere recantation is like an apology given only because it is asked for and without genuine contrition - not worth much. But it's worse than that. Not only is what the Vatican asks for pointless, it's an attempt at coercing belief; and even though Richard Williamson's present beliefs regarding the fate of the Jews in Nazi Europe are repugnant, the insistent demand that he change them (or else) is also repugnant. The demand for recantation should have gone out of fashion by now. Not that it's any of my direct concern but, rather than insisting on a recantation, the Catholic Church could simply state that Williamson's beliefs about the Shoah aren't compatible with membership.