ROME LETTER/Paddy Agnew: 'Your behaviour is highly disturbing for the whole church community. It is to be taken for granted that you have lost all respect on the part of serious and honest Christians."
With these words, the Abbot of Montevergine, Tarcisio Nazzaro, last week called on one of his priests, Don Vitaliano Della Sala, to renounce his parish duties in the little town of Sant'Angelo a Scala, near Avellino in Campania.
It was Don Vitaliano himself who informed the faithful of the latest episode in his continuing differences with the abbot when reading out his "dismissal" letter during last Sunday's Mass.
In retrospect, it was probably only a matter of time before events arrived at such a pretty pass. The problem about Don Vitaliano is that he has been putting himself about a lot in recent times, sometimes doing so in places and at public events not much to the liking of Pope John Paul II, let alone Abbot Nazzaro.
For a start, there was his appearance at the head of the bitterly condemned World Pride 2000 gay rights march in "Jubilee Year" Rome of two summers ago. Wearing his clerical garb and smiling for the cameras, Don Vitaliano announced: "I'm not the Pope but I'm here."
Twenty-four hours later in an unusually strongly worded statement, the Pope-Who-Was-Not-There signalled his distaste at the inevitably garish Gay Pride march and repeated church teaching that homosexuality is "contrary to natural law" and "intrinsically disordered".
Last summer, however, Don Vitaliano further incurred his superiors' displeasure when he became prominently involved in the anti-globalisation movement which descended on Genoa for the G8 summit of world leaders.
In the wake of three days of riots in Genoa - which cost one life, that of a 23-year-old protester Carlo Giuliani, and which caused damage of €35 million - many of those Catholic organisations present had second thoughts about their budding alliance with the "Seattle People", about future strategies for combating poverty, hunger and war.
One social commentator, Don Gianni Baget Bozzo, a priest and adviser to the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, in the wake of the G8 suggested that there is "a movement within Catholicism today that is anti-Western, anti-capitalism, connected to the theology of liberation". Don Vitaliano, however, responded by telling the US religious weekly, National Catholic Reporter, in relation to the violent "Black Blok" element at the centre of the Genoa violence: "We must not demonise these kids. We must try to understand why they try to create this violence, what disease in their lives they're responding to."
Furthermore, in the wake of Genoa, Don Vitaliano organised an August summer camp with the aim of bringing together disparate elements of the anti-globalisation movement, some of them (such as young anarchists and communists)traditionally hostile to the church, and others more mainstream Catholic such as Pax Christi.
The notoriety generated by his presence at Genoa did not endear Don Vitaliano to his superiors.
They were further alarmed by his summer camp and, above all, by the news last October that he was under investigation for "incitement to violence" at the G8 (a charge he vehemently denies) during the events that led to the fatal shooting of Carlo Giuliani by a 20-year-old policeman, Mario Placanico.
Then, too, despite being ordered to remain silent, Don Vitaliano continued to talk and to give interviews, prompting Abbot Nazzaro's most recent disciplinary action. For the time being, Don Vitaliano says he will contest the abbot's disciplinary measure by defending himself through the Church's legal system.
For the time being, too, the little community of Sant'Angelo a Scala would appear to have rallied around him, with 300 of the village's 800 inhabitants having signed a petition calling for him to be allowed remain in their parish.
Even the village mayor, Vinicio Zaccaria, whilst admitting that Don Vitaliano may have exaggerated on occasion, argues that "his battles are just battles, shared by the village community".
All of which leaves us with one troubled thought. Could it be that Don Vitaliano is indeed fighting "just battles"?
Could it be that those priests who have "lost the respect of serious and honest Christians" are to be found elsewhere, perhaps even in the ranks of political advisers, priests such as Don Baget Bozzo?
pagnew@irish-times.ie