Ana Rosa Quintaba’s program began on Tuesday afternoon addressing one of the most striking cases of the last few hours. And at the beginning of the week the news broke of the rebellion that the residents of La Magdalena, a small town in the province of León, were leading against the town’s parish priest.
The residents of the León municipality have been denouncing certain attitudes of the priest for some time. But the trigger for this unprecedented neighborhood war arose a few days ago at the funeral of Ángel, the 24-year-old young man who died in a traffic accident. During the funeral mass, his parents wanted to say their last goodbye to his son, but the priest chose not to let anyone participate, except for the young man’s partner.
For this reason, the mayor of the municipality was collecting signatures from residents to expel the priest from the town. At the moment, they have already collected more than 2,600 signatures and this afternoon, the Telecinco program had the opportunity to speak with several local residents who had witnessed the priest’s behavior during the funeral. ”He is an unpresentable person”, ”he is a scoundrel”, ”An arrogant person, who has no heart”, were some of those about José Riesco, the parish priest.
The grandmother of the deceased young man asked the presenter for all her help to prevent this type of situation from being repeated both in her town and in those around her. ”What happened to my grandson was a shame, what this priest did, so to speak, it is intolerable. “It cannot be repeated again,” she declared.
”He didn’t have a single word of affection, of delicacy, of anything towards the family, or towards him. “He is a despot and a priest who is despicable,” he added. ”I don’t understand it, we have unfortunately gone to many funerals, we have gone to many weddings and it is common for family and friends to say a few words. “I don’t know what harm is done with that, I don’t understand it,” declared the presenter.
”I am a believer and I am Catholic and the Church really allows this type of remoteness with the parishioners because it happens that you go to a church and you meet few people or very old people and thank God there are other priests who They are attracting younger people, who are more open. I am thinking about Father Ángel who has married and baptized many people that perhaps the church would not have done. And I think that is Christianity and that is what will make Catholicism survive with attitudes like this. But this person is not the right one to shepherd,’ he asserted.
