Wagner's withdrawal accepted by the Vatican

The Vatican has accepted ultra-conservative Austrian priest Gerhard Maria Wagner's request to rescind the promotion to auxiliary bishop in Linz, Austria's third largest city.

Wagner said "fierce criticism" prompted him to withdraw. Some conservative Catholic-oriented blogs not only respond with dismay, but also with sentiments like "it's probably good to find out now rather than later how easily he could be intimidated by the left."

Wagner has condemned the Harry Potter books as satanic, said homosexuality is curable and ruled out lay participation in Church affairs. After the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005, he commented: "It's no coincidence that in New Orleans all five abortion clinics as well as night clubs were destroyed."

Pope Benedict XVI's de-excommunication of a Holocaust-denying priest and appointment Wagner together set off a crisis in Austrian Catholicism that bishops are meet in emergency session today to address.