Catholic priests forced to apologise for wishing death on the Pope

A group of ultra-conservative priests from Spain and Latin America have been forced to apologise for saying they wished the Pope would die “as soon as possible”.

The comment was made during a filmed chat between members of a group called The Sacristy of the Vendée, which describes itself as “a counter-revolutionary priestly gathering”.

In it, Gabriel Calvo Zarraute, a priest from Toledo says: “I also pray a lot for the Pope, so that he can go to heaven as soon as possible.”

Another priest then also expresses his support for the Pope’s quick death, with other participants laughing at the comments.

The video was posted online and has had more than 60,000 views.

This week, the Vendée group apologised, saying the comment had been “unfortunate” and “a joke in bad taste” but that they understood how it could have been interpreted.

Francisco Cerro Chaves, the archbishop of Toledo, said he rejected the group’s comments and warned of possible “corrective measures” against the priests. He added that they had been forced to apologise.

New video contains fresh criticism

In a new Sacristy of the Vendée video called “Should we give up the fight?” recorded on Thursday night,  Francisco José Delgado, the group’s leader, said any accusation that they wished ill on the Pope was a “malicious misinterpretation”.

But the video contained fresh criticism of the Pope over his approval in December of church blessings for same-sex couples.

Father Calvo Zarraute doubled down on his rejection of any kind of marriage except a permanent union between a man and a woman without contraceptive methods.

He also pledged his loyalty to the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who ruled the country with an iron fist for almost 40 years until 1975 and enjoyed a large degree of support from the Catholic Church.

“As Catholics, we are in favour of defending the memory of Francisco Franco because he saved the Catholic Church in Spain from extermination,” he said.

It is not the first time action has been taken against members of the Sacristy of the Vendée group.

Earlier this year, they were forced to remove their signatures from a petition they helped to organise that demanded the Pope annul his order permitting the blessing of gay marriages.