The auxiliary-bishop-designate of Linz whom I labelled "kickass" (for the record, that's praise) back on Feb. 2, has been bullied into pretending not to want the job, and, it seems, the Holy Father has decided the best course is the extremely rare one of granting a dispensation from acceptance of an episcopal appointment. Rorate Caeli reports here.

There are some things not to like about Fr. Gerhard Wagner (he's not exactly a Harry Potter fan, for one thing), but I stand by my description of him as kickass (and by my characterization of this as praise), and I worry that the Holy Father has been railoaded. The Church's enemies are crowing.

And why not? Der Fall Wagner is red meat to the sharks. Any episcopal appointment widely opposed by the local clergy will now generate "resolutions" and "protests" by said clergy. The Holy Father will have to make up his mind in advance, together with the appointee, that they are going to ride it out and assert their legitimate authority. Otherwise, the Church's effective constitution will have changed to something like the way U.S. Presidents (Republican ones, anyway) appoint Supreme Court Justices: subject to "confirmation" by a diocesan "Senate," thus forcing the Pope to look for "stealth" nominees, or worse yet, genuinely "moderate" ones.