A priest is being asked to take a break from his parish in the Italian town of Montesilvano after some in his congregation reportedly stormed out of Mass when he openly criticised the progressive agenda of Pope Francis.
Reports said that the congregation shouted 'Shame, shame!' at the priest, Edward Pushparaj, when he said Pope Francis had 'only' been 'bad' for the Catholic Church while preaching on Palm Sunday.
The local Archbishop, Tommaso Valentinetti of the Archdiocese of Pescara-Penne, has now pledged to meet the unhappy parishioners from St. Anthony of Padua parish.
In an article published on the archdiocesan website, Archbishop Valentinetti suggested that Pushparaj, an assistant pastor at the church who is also known as Don Edward, may have overstepped the mark during his preaching.
'Preaching is one of the main activities in the ministry of a priest,' Valentinetti said. 'It is a service linked to meditation on the Word of the day, the liturgy, and certainly cannot relate to personal judgments, especially when they are not in communion with the Pope.'
In his homily Pushparaj, who is from India, reportedly referred to the Pope's dialogue with other faiths and in particular his decision to wash the feet of a Muslim woman at a detention center outside Rome on Maundy Thursday in 2013.
'In four years Pope Francis has only been bad for the church,' the priest is reported to have said.
According to Italian media reports, Pushparaj's parishioners have been complaining about the priest for some weeks and claim that he has criticised the Pope's exhortation on the family, 'Amoris Laetitia'.
Valentinetti said that Pushparaj may have been influenced in his anger by certain 'clericalist and pseudo-traditionalist currents that the Pope, fortunately, goes against'.
The Archbishop said he hoped that Pushparaj was just weary and in need of a rest.
'I think it's fair to ask the priest to take some time to rest and release him, temporarily, from his pastoral duties,' Valentinetti wrote.
