A Spanish priest apologized “for what may have caused harm to our beloved Church” after photos emerged apparently showing him offering Mass by a swimming pool, which his bishop strongly condemned.
“I am very sorry for what may have caused harm to our beloved Church,” wrote Father Marco Antonio Martínez Moreno in a July 31 statement, issued on the website of the local diocese.
The Salesian priest had been chaplain for a summer camp in the south of Spain, during which he posted images of himself and the camp participants in what appeared to be a pool-side Mass.
One of the since-deleted images shows Moreno – liturgically vested in alb and stole – flanked by a girl in a bikini and a boy in swimming shorts. The girl is holding the chalice aloft, and the boy is holding the host in a manner which appeared to be the elevation of the consecrated species that occurs at the end of the Canon of the Mass.
Other images depicted Moreno, vested in his alb and stole, standing behind a low table apparently set up as a make-shift altar, positioned right on the edge of the swimming pool. One image depicts him addressing the teenagers and young children in the pool, another shows him sitting on the edge of the pool with his feet in the water while still vested and addressing the group.
Seeking comment on the matter July 30, LifeSiteNews contacted the Salesian superiors of the two Spanish provinces along with Bishop José Rico Pavés, who leads the local Diocese of Asidonia-Jerez.
The bishop’s response was published on the diocesan website, forming part of the same press release in which Moreno issued his apology.
Moreno’s photos, the diocese noted, appeared to show the priest “celebrating the Eucharist in a way that is manifestly contrary to liturgical norms of the Catholic Church.”
Referencing “the scandal caused by the publication of those photos,” the bishop asked Moreno to clarify the incident.
“Obviously, the context of the paraliturgy that we celebrate is missing,” Moreno claimed on July 31.
According to the diocesan statement, Bishop Pavés instructed the priest that “young people (children and adults) are miseducated when they are not even helped to distinguish the Liturgy from the beach, and scandal is caused to all when a priest makes and unmakes the liturgy as he pleases.”
“We are not masters of the liturgy or of the sacraments, any more than we are masters of the Gospel or of the other goods of salvation that the Church has placed in our hands,” the bishop is reported as saying. “We are servants and as such we are called to evangelize.”
The statement further noted that in accordance with Canon Law 1339, Moreno had been issued with a written warning about his behavior.
After reports emerged July 30, Moreno swiftly deleted the images from his social media accounts. However, InfoVaticana reported that Moreno has a history of controversy, making headlines in 2020 for “doing magic tricks [in] a Mass with the students of the Nuestra Señora del Rosario school in Rota.”