The photos went viral this week, prompting the local Catholic archdiocese to demand an explanation for the behavior
A priest who held a service at sea using an inflatable mattress as an altar has been investigated by Italian authorities.
The father Mattia Bernasconi from the archdiocese of Milan, said he had planned to hold Sunday’s ceremony among the trees next to the beach of Crotona, or Crotone, in southern Italy, at a camp for high school students.
However, unable to find shade under the hot sun, the priest said a family offered to use the inflatable mattress and so he, without a second thought, entered the sea to perform the service in his bathing suit. After the photos went viral this week, the local Catholic archdiocese demanded an explanation for the behavior.
“In some special cases, during camps, school camps, holiday places, it is possible to have a service outside the church“, the archdiocese of Crotone-Santa Severina says in a statement. “But it is necessary that one has first obtained permission from the local church, for the most appropriate way of conducting such a Eucharistic ceremony».
In an interview with the Italian newspaper “la Repubblica”, the chief prosecutor of the city of Crotone said that the priest was being investigated for “insulting a religious confession”.
Bernasconi defended his actions on Wednesday (July 27) while apologizing for any offense, saying his behavior was “perhaps reckless”, adding that he would not do it again.
“I had no intention of belittling the function, but symbols are powerful and speak, sometimes, in a different way than we would like. It was naive of me not to give them due weight“, said the priest.
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