A high-level Vatican official on Friday declined to comment on allegations that Vatican decision-making is failing in the wake of the Bishop Williamson Holocaust denial scandal, replying with only one sentence: "We have no FBI."
Mexican Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Health, was commenting on the row in an interview published by the Spanish daily El Mundo, dpa reported.
Lozano Barragan described Williamson's denial of the Holocaust as a "stupidity," stressing the British-born bishop had already made the claims a year ago.
"Any one of us can say a stupidity, and are we going to be excommunicated for that?" the cardinal asked.
Saying a stupidity was a sin if it was done "consciously and with wickedness," but people were excommunicated only if they "essentially disobeyed" basic dogma of the church, he explained.
Asked whether Pope Benedict XVI's ignorance of Williamson's views did not indicate flaws in Vatican decision-making, Lozano Barragan replied: "We have no FBI."