Vatican City - A bishop recently rehabilitated by Pope Benedict XVI has apologized to the pontiff for the "distress and problems" he caused by denying the Holocaust.
Bishop Richard Williamson, who recently denied that 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, is calling his remarks "imprudent" as he expresses his regrets in a letter posted on Friday on his personal blog.
The bishop also thanks the pope for lifting the excommunication that the Vatican had imposed on him 20 years earlier because he had been elevated to bishop's rank by a renegade, ultraconservative prelate.
Williamson's denial of the Holocaust in a recent interview on Swedish TV sparked a storm of protest from Jewish groups and others.