Former SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson hospitalised in serious condition

The controversial bishop Richard Williamson is in hospital in a serious condition and has received last rites following reports that he was admitted to hospital following a brain haemorrhage.

Williamson has been excommunicated multiple times, making him one of the most rebellious prelates in the Church’s history. He has consecrated several men as bishops without Vatican approval, leaving behind an episcopal lineage of illicit bishops.

The renegade bishop was one of four men consecrated as bishops for the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre at Écône, Switzerland, without Vatican approval.

Williamson, an Englishman and originally an Anglican, attended Winchester College and later Cambridge University. He was received into the Catholic Church in 1971 and, after discerning his vocation at the Brompton Oratory, London, entered the International Seminary of Saint Pius X at Écône, Switzerland. The society, founded by Archbishop Lefebvre and then in full communion with the Church, opposed the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Williamson was ordained a priest in 1976.

He subsequently moved to the United States, where he served as rector of St Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Ridgefield, Connecticut, from 1983. He continued in this role when the seminary relocated to Winona, Minnesota, in 1988.

By 1988, tensions between the Society and Rome had reached breaking point. Archbishop Lefebvre had long been at odds with the Holy See, facing suspension a divinis for ordaining priests without approval and resisting the New Rites of the sacraments. Despite ongoing dialogue with Cardinal Ratzinger, who sought to regularise the SSPX, Lefebvre’s erratic behaviour and staunch opposition to Vatican II reforms ultimately derailed their agreement. That year, Lefebvre consecrated Williamson and three others as bishops without papal consent, leading to the immediate excommunication of Lefebvre, Williamson, and the other three bishops. Lefebvre died in 1991.

Following his episcopal consecration, Williamson remained rector of St Thomas Aquinas Seminary until 2003, when he was appointed rector of the SSPX Seminary of Our Lady Co-Redemptrix in La Reja, Argentina.

In 2009, at the same time the Vatican remitted the automatic excommunications of the bishops, Williamson made headlines for stating on Swedish television: “I believe that the historical evidence is strongly against, is hugely against six million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler.”

Williamson’s relationship with the SSPX became increasingly strained. In August 2012, he conducted unauthorised confirmations in Brazil, prompting criticism from SSPX leadership for disobedience. By October 2012, after refusing to submit and publishing an open letter against the Superior General, he was expelled from the Society for his refusal “to show respect and obedience deserved by his legitimate superiors.”

From 2015, Williamson began independently consecrating bishops, starting with Jean-Michel Faure in Brazil, incurring automatic excommunication for conducting the ceremonies without papal approval. He subsequently consecrated Tomás de Aquino Ferreira da Costa, Gerardo Zendejas, Michał Stobnicki, Giacomo Ballini, and, reportedly in 2024, performed a conditional episcopal consecration for Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.

Known for his controversial views, Williamson argued that women should not pursue careers or attend university and propagated conspiracy theories, including claims that the September 11 attacks and the 2005 London bombings were orchestrated by the US and UK governments.

Photo by jcapaldi on Flickr (cropped).
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).

The post Former SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson hospitalised in serious condition first appeared on Catholic Herald.

The post Former SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson hospitalised in serious condition appeared first on Catholic Herald.