Among the beefy men serving up the beer at Munich's Oktoberfest is a Catholic priest, Munich's Sueddeutsche newspaper reported on Tuesday.Father Rainer Maria Schiessler's customers in the beer tents are unaware of his true identity, as he wears no priestly vestments, and refer to him simply as Rainer, the name shown on his badge.
This is Rainer's second Oktoberfest.
Last year he was summoned to offices of the archbishop in this staunchly Catholic city to be told that priests should not go around playing waiter.
But Father Rainer has shrugged off the reprimand. "If this job is below the dignity of a priest, are the others serving beer here worth less than I am?" he asks.
Father Rainer, whose parish falls in the trendy Glockenbach quarter, where gay bars proliferate, is convinced he is gathering valuable life experience here.
"I would send any priest out here for a practical," he says.
The Oktoberfest, which began on Sunday, is expected to draw 6 million visitors by the time the last one-litre measure of beer is drawn on October 7.
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