Rome Newsroom, Jul 27, 2022 / 06:33 am
After photos of a shirtless Italian priest celebrating Mass in the sea using an inflatable lounge chair went viral this week, the local Catholic archdiocese has called for liturgical decorum and respect.
Father Mattia Bernasconi, a priest of the archdiocese of Milan, publicly acknowledged in an interview on July 26 that his liturgical choice to swap out his vestments for swim trunks was “perhaps imprudent” and said that he would not do it again.
The 36-year-old priest explained that he had been helping with a week-long summer camp for high school students in southern Italy organized by Libera, an anti-mafia organization.
“We wanted to spend the last day at the beach; it was Sunday and there arose the issue of Mass, which we always celebrate,” Bernasconi told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.