French villagers back celibacy row priest

Roman Catholics in a village in the depths of rural France are refusing to go to Mass after their priest was forced to leave because he had a girlfriend.

Father Léon Laclos admitted having a sɛҳuąƖ relationship with one of his parishioners in Asson, south-west France, but argued that being in love had brought him closer to his congregation and to God.

For 22 years he conducted a discreet relationship with Marga, a widowed parishioner with three children, until a fellow priest alerted the senior Catholic hierarchy that he had broken his celibacy vow.

Shocked by his dismissal, hundreds of parishioners in the village - a few miles east of the pilgrimage site of Lourdes - have refused to attend mass led by his replacement.

Last month they staged a protest, hanging giant banners with the words "give us back our priest" from the belfry and nailed them to the church roof.

"Marga has made me a good priest," said Father Léon. "I know I haven't remained strictly faithful to the vows I made when I was ordained 30 years ago, but I also know that my love for Marga has in no way been a handicap to my mission as a parish priest. In fact, it's been a great support. A lot of my parishioners look at me and say, well here's a priest who loves the Church but who listens to us, who understands us, and who lives like us," he said.

"They just threw him away like a dirty thing. It was very hard. The Church is wrong, really wrong," said Marga, whose surname has not been made public.

"It's a disgrace. Everyone had faith in him. The Church must change because society has changed," said Aline, 45, a local postal worker.

But the Catholic Church has no intention of breaking with tradition. "The right decision was made regarding a priest whose public and affirmed behaviour did not coincide with his own commitments," said Pierre Molierès, the Bishop of Bayonne, who took the decision to dismiss Father Léon.

The priest has refused an offer to relocate to the Ivory Coast.