A Catholic priest caused controversy in Italy for celebrating mass at sea last Sunday, shirtless and using an inflatable mattress as an altar.
In a press release published on its website, the Archdiocese of Crotone in southern Italy, where Mass was celebrated, condemned the priest.
“The celebration of the Eucharist has a special language, it is done with gestures and symbols that are to be respected and valued. They should not be abandoned so superficially,” he wrote. “It is necessary to maintain this minimum of decency and attention to symbols,” he stressed.
Due to the heat wave in the peninsula and the lack of shade, Archbishop Mattia Bernasconi decided to celebrate Mass in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The religious celebration concluded the activities of a youth camp for volunteers of the antimafia organization Libera, which manages land confiscated from the mafia.
The unusual event was filmed and broadcast by various media. In the pictures, the priest can be seen shirtless in front of his makeshift altar and a group of people in bathing suits.
On Wednesday, Archbishop Mattia released a letter to the Archdiocese stating that he did not want to trivialize or manipulate the Eucharist to convey any kind of message.
“It was just a mass that capped off a week’s work with the young people attending the camp,” he wrote.
“The symbols are strong, it is true, and they are eloquent (…) It was a certain naivety not to give them the weight they deserve,” he admitted. “I sincerely apologize for the confusion caused by the images released in the press,” he added.
Crotone’s prosecutors launched an investigation into “insulting a religious institution.”
For his part, an MP expressed his solidarity with the priest and thanked him “for taking Christian values to the beaches”.