Richard Williamson, the Holocaust-denying bishop whose rehabilitation by the pope caused a rift between the Vatican and Jews, has been removed from his position as head of a seminary in Argentina.
Williamson was sacked after refusing Pope Benedict XVI's call for him to retract his denial of the Holocaust.
The news of the bishop's removal was announced by the Latin America chief of Williamson's ultraconservative Society of Pius X, Father Christian Bouchacourt, who said: ''A Catholic bishop can only talk with authority about matters concerning faith and morality''.
Williamson's rehabilitation last month raised tensions in Catholic-Jewish relations and even spurred German Chancellor Angela Merkel to ask for an explanation.
The pope said he was unaware of Williamson's views on the Holocaust when he decided to lift an excommunication on him and three other bishops ordained in 1988 by breakaway traditionalist Cardinal Marcel Lefebvre.
Williamson is now expected to be replaced by one of the three bishops.
The Vatican is waiting for Israeli Rabbis to say whether they will attend an interreligious meeting in the Vatican next month.
The rabbis pulled out of the meeting after Williamson was rehabilitated.
