Austrian Roman Catholic leaders called on the Vatican Monday to respect church procedures, after their counsel appeared to be ignored in the recent naming of a controversial priest as bishop.
"It is without question that the Pope can freely nominate bishops," Austrian bishops said in a pastoral letter drafted at an extraordinary meeting in Vienna to discuss the crisis in the Austrian church.
But "the procedures set out in Canon Law for the selection and examination of candidates are valuable only if these procedures are really respected," they added.
"We rightfully expect that the process of searching for candidates, examining proposals and making the final decision be taken with care," the bishops said.
Pope Benedict XVI's recent nomination of Gerhard Maria Wagner, an ultra-conservative priest, as auxiliary bishop of Linz sparked outrage in Austria because of his controversial comments but also because he was not on the list of nominees submitted to the Vatican.
Wagner eventually announced Sunday that he was withdrawing his nomination due to "hefty criticism," a move welcomed by many church leaders.
Vienna's archbishop, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn deemed the decision "adequate" after the meeting, but also criticised the Vatican for taking "shortcuts" in appointing Wagner.
The priest had sparked controversy recently with comments that homosexuality was a disease that could cured.
In the past, he also described the Harry Potter novels as "satanism" and implied that the 2004 tsunami in South East Asia and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 — in which five abortion clinics were destroyed — were divine punishment for "spiritual pollution".
Wagner's nomination came as the Vatican was already under fire for lifting the excommunication of British bishop Richard Williamson, who dismissed as "lies" that six million Jews were gassed by the Nazis during World War II.
In light of these controversies, Schoenborn called Monday's meeting to discuss the deep crisis in the Austrian church and provide some "damage limitation."
However, the bishops justified the pontiff's decision to lift Williamson's excommunication in their letter, noting the move was "only an outstretched hand to some who split from the Church" and insisting the Vatican had strongly called on Williamson to recant.
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