Amsterdam  - A philosophy and ethics professor at Radboud University of Nijmegen, until 2004 formally a Catholic university, has formally renounced his membership of the Catholic Church to protest the rehabilitation of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX).

In an interview for Dutch Catholic internet magazine Katholiek Nederland, Belgian-born Jean-Pierre Wils said he refuses to associate himself any further with the Church's "anti-modern, anti-pluralistic and totalitarian" attitude.

Wils said he made his decision after Rome revoked on January 24 the 1988 excommunication of the four clerics, who led the breakaway, ultra-traditionalist Catholic group which accents prayer in Latin and opposition to Jewish beliefs.

Rottenburg/Rome - A second German Catholic bishop Saturday raised unusual criticism of German Pope Benedict XVI for rehabilitating Holocaust denier Bishop Williamson, adding his objections to the pope's leading the church in an ultraconservative direction.

Bishop Gebhard Fuerst of Rottenburg-Stuttgart criticized as "totally unacceptable" remarks by Bishop Richard Williamson in recent weeks that there was no historical evidence for the Holocaust.

Vatican City - Plans to crown the Roman Catholic Church's rehabilitation of Galileo Galilei by placing a statue of the Italian astronomer in the Vatican, have been "indefinitely suspended" a top church official said Thursday.

But the head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Culture, Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, confirmed the Holy See is organizing a series of conferences commemorating the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of the telescope.

Ravasi was speaking at a news conference in which he outlined the Vatican's participation in the United Nations-designated International Year of Astronomy - for which

Vatican City  - Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday, moving to quell outrage over a recently reinstated bishop's remarks denying the Nazi mass murder of the Jews, reiterated the Roman Catholic Church's "solidarity" with the Jewish people.

Benedict during his weekly general audience said the memory of the Holocaust (or Shoah) cannot be cancelled through any form of denial.

Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday expressed "solidarity" with the Jewish people and asked four recently reinstated bishops to adhere to the Second Vatican Council which prescribes brotherly relations with Jews.

Benedict during his general audience said the reality of the Nazi mass murder of Jews, known as the Holocaust or Shoah cannot be cancelled through any form of denial.

The German-born pontiff remarks come in the wake of mounting pressure on the Vatican to take action after one of the pardoned ultra-traditionalist bishops, Richard Williamson said he did not believe the Holocaust had taken place.

Vatican City  - The Vatican's newspaper on Monday described as "unacceptable" remarks made by a Roman Catholic bishop in which he denied that millions of Jews were killed in Nazi gas chambers.

The Osservatore Romano referred to the row over Saturday's announcement that Pope Benedict XVI had revoked the 1988 excommunication of four ultra-traditionalist bishops belonging to the Society of Pius X (SSPX) - a group which broke with the Vatican over reforms ushered in by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.