BLAZON OF ARMS:
SHIELD: Azure, a lion guardant or, armed and langued Gules, holding in the dexter paw a sword in fess, point to sinister, Argent. In base a cross flory Argent, charged with a reversed cinquefoil Or
SOURCE, NOTES and CREDITS: Arms for background based on information supplied by the late Michael Francis McCarthy and text based on the Wikipedia article.
Bishop Richard Nelson Williamson born on 8 March 1940 was an English traditionalist Catholic bishop and Holocaust denier who opposed the changes in the church brought about by the Second Vatican Council and was excommunicated from the Catholic Church.
In 1988, Williamson was one of four Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) priests illicitly consecrated as bishops by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, for which Pope John Paul II declared he had incurred ipso facto automatic excommunication.
The validity of the excommunication has always been denied by the SSPX, who, citing canon law, argue that the consecrations were permissible due to a crisis in the Catholic Church. The excommunications, including that of Williamson, were lifted on 21 January 2009 but the suspension of the bishops from ministry within the Catholic Church remained in force.
After a number of incidents, including calling for the resignation of Bernard Fellay as the Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X, refusal to stop publishing his weekly email and an unauthorized visitation to Brazil, Williamson was expelled from the Society in 2012.
After leaving the Society, Williamson consecrated Jean-Michel Faure, Tomás de Aquino Ferreira da Costa, and Gerardo Zendejas as bishops in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Because of these consecrations, he was excommunicated latae sententiae from the Catholic Church again.
On 24 January 2025, Williamson had cerebral hemorrhage and was hospitalized near his home in Kent. He died in Margate on 29 January, at the age of 84.
The artwork is an interpretation of John Hamilton Gaylor.
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