ITALY
Telegraph (UK)
An Italian parish priest has caused uproar after burning a photograph of Benedict XVI during a church service and likening him to the disgraced captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship captain.
By Nick Squires, Rome
6:19PM GMT 04 Mar 2013
Father Andrea Maggi shocked parishioners and was criticised by his local bishop after using a candle to set alight the image of the former pontiff, who last week became the first Pope to step down in nearly 600 years, in protest against his decision to resign the papacy.
The priest likened the Pope Emeritus’s resignation to Captain Francesco Schettino’s alleged abandoning of the Concordia after he steered it into Giglio, an island off the Italian coast a year ago.
“Am I sorry for having burned the photo of the Pope? No. He’s behaved like Schettino, he abandoned his flock,” said Father Maggi, 67, from the hilltop town of Castel Vittorio in the north-western coastal region of Liguria.
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