August   31,  2020

Thought   for  Today

“Priest’s  Protest  at  Retirement

The  81-year-old parish priest of an Udine church in North Italy rent his vestments, smashed communion wine on the floor and ordered his bishop out of the chapel during a packed mass last week.

The spectacle was Father Angelo Quirini’s last performance  in a series of protests against Bishop Alfredo Battisti’s attempts to force him to retire.

Bishop Battisti’s announcement to the congregation during the mass that Fr Quirini was retiring had provoked the priest’s wrath.

His fourth and final protest gesture was to turn out all the lights in the church.  The astonished parishioners, left in the dark,  then heard him declare at the top of his voice from the direction of the altar, ‘Go, Bishop, while you still have the chance.’”

by our Rome correspondent

Found this last night in a box

of old letters.  Someone sent it 

to me as a newspaper clipping.  

It’s  listed “Catholic Herald” 

5/10/91, England.