Weddings and baptisms held in the tiny Italian church of Gioia Vecchio now bear the taint of another act performed on its holy grounds – the shooting of a pornographic scene for an X-rated film.
“All ceremonies performed here since this scandalous act are illicit,” the church’s Father Paolo Ferrini said on Thursday.
The scandalized priest, newly arrived in the tiny village near L’Aquila, northeast of Rome, knew only that his predecessor had permitted a filmmaker to shoot a wedding scene in the church square five years ago.
But it was one of his parishioners who discovered another film scene, unapproved by the Roman Catholic diocese, when he spotted his church in a p o r n film he was watching.
Incensed, the man notified the police, who along with parish officials have vowed to hunt down those responsible for the defamation of Gioia Vecchio.
…A bishop will also have to issue a new decree to revalidate all marriages, communions, baptisms and funerals celebrated in the village since 1998.
Monsignor Lunio Renna, the local prelate, said he would announce his decision on such a decree once he had spoken with all persons involved in the affair.
He said his energies had been devoted to another pressing bishopric matter: another priest had been trapped in his church for days, walled in by parishioners who refused to allow him to be transferred.
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This act of desecration the Church is sad indeed. Strange that this parishioner who had no problem with the desecration of the temple of the body was so incensed by the descration of the Church. Sacrilege is a greater moral evil and I am glad at least that this was uncovered.
