[Marxism] Pope promotes pastor who said hurricane was God's punishment

[Louis Proyect]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/01/gerhard-wagner-hurricane-katrina

Pope promotes pastor who said hurricane was God's punishment
New Catholic bishop called Katrina 'divine retribution' for New Orleans' 
permissive sexual attitudes
by Mark Tran

Pope Benedict XVI leaving Rome on his first official visit to the United 
States

Pope Benedict XVI has made another controversial appointment by 
elevating to the position of bishop an Austrian pastor who said 
Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for homosexuality in New Orleans.

The Vatican yesterday announced that Gerhard Wagner has been appointed 
as auxiliary bishop in Linz, Austria.

Wagner has served as the pastor of a church in the Austrian town of 
Windischgarsten since 1988, and received a doctorate in theology from 
the Gregorian Pontifical University in Rome.

In 2005, the 54-year-old was quoted in a parish newsletter as saying he 
was convinced that the death and destruction caused by Katrina that year 
was "divine retribution" for New Orleans' permissive sexual attitudes 
and tolerance of homosexuality.

Kath.Net, a Catholic news agency in Austria, said the newsletter quoted 
Wagner as saying that Katrina had destroyed not only nightclubs and 
brothels in New Orleans but also abortion clinics.

He first attracted international attention in 2001 when he described JK 
Rowling's best-selling Harry Potter novels as "satanism" and warned 
against the magical spells and formulas used in thenovels.

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel last week broke off official ties with the 
Vatican to protest against the Pope's decision to rehabilitate a bishop 
who once said he did not believe there had been Nazi gas chambers.

British-born Richard Williamson is one of four bishops who are members 
of the Society of Pius X, a traditionalist Catholic order, whose 
excommunication was lifted a week ago.

Williamson, who now lives in Argentina, had claimed in a television 
interview that historical evidence was "hugely against six million 
having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy 
of Adolf Hitler ... I believe there were no gas chambers".

Williamson was excommunicated 20 years ago after being consecrated by 
the French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent.

The Vatican said it had been unaware of Williamson's views on the 
Holocaust when the decision was made to readmit the group, and the Pope 
quickly distanced himself from the comments and expressed "full and 
indisputable solidarity" with Jews.

However, condemnation from Jewish groups was widespread.

On Thursday, Bishop Bernard Fellay, the superior general of the Society 
of St Pius X, asked for forgiveness from the Pope for the "dramatic 
consequences" of Williamson's comments.

Fellay said he had forbidden Williamson from speaking publicly about any 
historical or political questions and added that his views "don't 
reflect in any way the position of the society".