THE Jewish Council of Ireland has branded as ‘outrageous’ the involvement of a registered charity with an anti-Semitic sect led by a Holocaust denier.
The Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) Resistance group, headed by global figurehead Bishop Richard Williamson, rejects Vatican II reforms and worship at traditional Tridentine Masses.
Bishop Williamson, who has twice been excommunicated, has been convicted of Holocaust denial in Germany. His followers include extremists who disseminate extreme anti-Jewish, racist and homophobic material online.
Since the pandemic began, those followers have also branded Covid a hoax, blamed the virus on Jewish people and advocated the execution of homosexuals and abortionists.
Last week an Irish Mail on Sunday investigation revealed that Matthew Bruton – the son of former Taoiseach John Bruton – was, until recently, involved with the group and had attended Bishop Williamson’s anti-Semitic talks.
John Bruton is a patron of the Holocaust Education Trust of Ireland (HETI), which this week declined to answer queries about whether he would remain so.
The Jewish Representative Council said yesterday Mr Bruton’s position as a patron of HETI was a matter for that organisation. Council spokesman Maurice Cohen told the MoS: ‘This is solely for HETI to deal with as they see fit and the council has no view on it.’
In Ireland, SSPX Resistance operates from a priory on a west Cork farm, and is spiritually led by Italian priest Fr Giacomo Ballini. The priory is supported by a registered charity, The Society Of The Apostles Of Jesus And Mary.
Land registry records confirm the property was purchased in the name of Fr Ballini in September 2018 without recourse to a mortgage.
When contacted by the MoS, charity trustee Harry Rea confirmed the Society Of The Apostles Of Jesus And Mary helped to renovate the SSPX Resistance property and construct a church there.
But Mr Rea, a Cork businessman and one-time election candidate for the Christian Solidarity Party, said it was unfair to link SSPX Massgoers supported by his charity to anti-Semitic views.
‘If there’s someone in the group that’s into strangling trout, that’s their business. If I find out? I’m going to tell them I don’t agree with it but it’s nothing to do with 100% simple straightforward Catholics going to Mass.’
According to the Charities Regulator, the charity was set up in 2017 and received donations of €58,373 in 2019 and nearly €30,000 in 2020.
The returns show just €13,900 of that money was spent on activities including ‘organised conferences in our chapels and halls’ and publishing ‘material such as reviews’.
This week, the Charities Regulator confirmed that complaints about the charity’s possible association with anti-Semitism are the focus of an ongoing inquiry.
‘We can’t comment on open concerns,’ a spokesman told the MoS.
However, the MoS has confirmed the complaints date back to the summer and relate to a talk during which Bishop Williamson blamed Covid on Jews and repeated Holocaust denials. These comments are also the focus of a Garda hatespeech investigation following a complaint from the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland.
Last night, Mr Cohen said: ‘Any funding of Holocaust deniers is outrageous, especially from a body with charitable status.’
Asked about Bishop Williamson, Mr Rea said there was no link between the charity and the anti-Semitic activities of the bishop or his followers.
‘There is no connection that I know of where there was ever anything organised to facilitate anyone who would denounce anything like that,’ he said.
But Mr Rea said he was happy to follow the bishop spiritually.
‘What he’s saying about the faith I take it as really, really good and sound. What he’s saying about other things I listen to it as an opinion. I don’t mix the two.’
Asked if he shared Bishop Williamson’s view that only 300,000 Jews were gassed in the Holocaust, Mr Rea said: ‘It means a lot to me to know people are talking about the horrors that happened? but I’ve also heard there were advantages taken about the numbers and I listen to that just as readily. I’m upset by one and I’m interested in the other. That’s how you learn.’
