Death notice for H.E. Bishop Richard Williamson

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PAX

Nova Friburgo, 30th January 2025

It is with deep regret that we announce the death of His Excellency Richard Nelson Williamson on this Wednesday, 29 January 2025, at 11.23 p.m. (London time).

Born in 1940, Richard N. Williamson converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism in 1971 and was ordained a priest by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1976, attached to the Society of St Pius X (SSPX). In recognition of his care, wisdom and merit in shepherding the flock entrusted to him, in 1988 he was consecrated bishop for the same Society, by the hands of Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer.

From 1976 to 2012, he served the SSPX in various positions, most notably as rector of St Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Ridgefield, Connecticut (1983-1988) and later in Winona, Minnesota (1988 - 2003). After a brief period as rector of the SSPX seminary in La Reja, Argentina (2003-2009), Mgr Williamson was sent to England for an extended ‘sabbatical’, followed by his canonically irregular removal from SSPX membership in 2012.

Since then, between the years 2012 and 2025, he has provided valuable assistance to faithful and priests around the world, autonomously, surrounded by the movement whose name he borrowed from Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's ‘Operation Survival’: Catholic Resistance. He courageously attended to the pressing needs of the Catholic faithful persecuted by Modernist Rome and neglected by the SSPX, which culminated in the consecration of six bishops for Catholic Tradition: Bishop Jean-Michel Faure (2015), Bishop Tomás de Aquino Ferreira da Costa (2016), Bishop Gerardo Zendejas (2017), Bishop Giacomo Ballini (2021), Bishop Michał Stobnicki (2022) and Bishop Paul Morgan (2022).

Requiescat in pace.

U.IO.G.D.