Promotion for cleric in gay sin row

AN Austrian cleric who said Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for the homosexual sins of New Orleans has been made a bishop by the Vatican.

Reverend Gerhard Wagner was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI just days after controversial British bishop Richard Williamson, who has said "no one had died in the gas chambers" during the Holocaust, was allowed back into the Catholic Church.

The wisdom of the Vatican was again being questioned following Wagner's appointment as the Bishop of Linz with Italian newspaper La Stampa labelling it a "controversial".

Rev Wagner, 54, caused outrage when he was quoted in his local parish newsletter as saying that the death and destruction of Hurricane Katrina was "divine retribution" for New Orleans' tolerance of homosexuals and laid-back sexual attitudes.

In 2001 Wagner slammed Harry Potter books as "satanic".

His appointment was criticised by Austrian priests. Father Franz Wild said: "I hope the church realises that we live in the 21st century and that the church must live in that period, too."