ROME, Italy (CNN) -- The Vatican says it has ordered a controversial bishop who denies the Holocaust to "distance himself" from his views "in an absolutely unequivocal and public manner." In the interview,  Bishop Williamson denied the Nazis had used gas chambers at concentration camps. The Vatican has been under fire since Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson almost two weeks ago, days after Swedish Public Television broadcast an interview in which Williamson said the Nazis had not systematically murdered 6 million Jews during World War II. Israel Wednesday blasted the rehabilitation of Williamson. "The reinstatement of a Holocaust denier by the Holy See offends every Jew, in Israel and around the world, and humiliates the memory of all Holocaust victims and survivors," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
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Vatican orders bishop who denies Holocaust to "distance himself" from views
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German police launch criminal probe into Bishop Richard Williamson
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Williamson denied Nazis intentionally murdered 6 million Jews.
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Pope recently rehabilitated Williamson, who was excommunicated in 1988
According to the German criminal code, comments glorifying or denying crimes committed by the @placeholder, or National Socialists, are a crime only if they are made publicly.