A traditionalist Catholic bishop whose denial of the Holocaust created a scandal when Pope Benedict XVI rehabilitated him has died. Richard Williamson was 84.

Richard Williamson, a Catholic bishop known for his controversial denial of the Holocaust, has died at age 84. He was part of the Society of St. Pius X and was excommunicated in 1988, later rehabilitated by Pope Benedict XVI.

Bishop Williamson’s public denial of the Jewish Holocaust became an additional roadblock to full communion with the Catholic Church as well as a source of deep tension within the SSPX.

The statement was issued as heads of state and government gathered Jan. 27 at Auschwitz-Birkenau in southern Poland to mark International Holocaust Memorial Day and remember the camp's estimated 1.1 million mostly Jewish, but also Polish, Roma, Soviet POWs and other nationalities’ and social group victims.