VATICAN CITY, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI may end the excommunication of four traditionalist bishops, including a Holocaust-denier, Italian newspapers reported Thursday.
The bishops were ordained by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who was excommunicated in 1988 and died three years later, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. Lefebvre was the founder of the Society of Saint Pius X, a conservative group that wants the church to return to the Latin mass and to roll back the changes of Vatican II.
One of the four, Richard Williamson, is an English convert to Catholicism who denies that Jews were massacred during World War II, The Times of London said.
"There were no gas chambers," he told a Swedish TV station this week.
The Vatican has refused any comment on reports in Il Giornale and Il Reformista, ANSA reported.
Pope Benedict sympathizes with Catholic traditionalists and has allowed the Latin mass to be used more freely.
