THREE Spanish priests said they were defying an order from the Catholic archbishop of Madrid (pic'd here) to stop celebrating mass at a church dubbed the "parish of the poor".Priests at the church in the working class neighbourhood of Vallecas irritated the archbishop by presiding over services wearing non-clerical clothes and handing out biscuits instead of communion wafers.
The Church yesterday ordered them to stop celebrating mass and said it would hand over the church premises to the Catholic charity Caritas so it could continue supporting a congregation which includes street children and poor immigrants.
The priests remained defiant.
"We aren't going to separate our social work, helping the poor, from the way in which we celebrate the liturgy," one of them, Enrique de Castro, was quoted as saying in El Pais newspaper.
Widely known as the "red priest", the jean-wearing Father De Castro shares his house with 10 of his flock, and says even more turn up for meals.
In a news release, the priests quoted a biblical text calling for ministries for the poor.
"What Jesus proclaims in this text is our faith and we want to continue living it. The assembly has decided to carry on," they said.
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