Menage a Trois

A priest, the Church...and his girlfriend, imitate the Bob Newhart Show:

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.

....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.