Replacement priest for Manilva

MALAGA Bishopric has named a “temporary substitute” to replace a priest in Manilva.

Residents in San Luis de Sabinillas, collected 1,500 signatures to ask the Bishopric to get rid of the priest, Nicolas Timpu, who has reportedly reprimanded people for crying at funerals. The priest was invited by the diocese to take some time off to visit his homeland, Romania.

Father Francisco Javier Fernandez Berruezo has been named to take charge of the parish churches in Casares, Manilva and Sabinillas in his absence.

Other local priests believe he may be permanently moved to another parish upon his return. While there have been a number of complaints against the priest, they say that other people have been saddened to learn he had left and called the Bishopric to show their support.

Timpu was also accused of playing Christmas carols at funerals.

One woman, whose son, 25, died in a traffic accident in September, reported that at his funeral, the priest shouted at the relatives to stop crying or he would end the mass, saying that the young man had died “because he was a sinner.”

When he was questioned by a relative, she was told to “shut up” because the “same thing could happen” to her.

At the funeral of a 10-year-old girl he is reported to have said that he “knew she was going to die” and that now “the worms were feasting” on her.

He refused to give a girl communion because he said she was “full of sin” and going to “burn in hell”.