[kAcknor]

Governments, even the religious governing bodies of the Catholic Church, can't allow anyone to be too popular with a forbidden idea (Like self defense).

[kAcknor]

S Bump

[Cicero]

In the modern world normally priests don't pack weapons, but I don't think there's any law against it. If there is, it is a prudential law, like eating fish on Fridays, not a matter of permanent doctrine.

If he were a religious priest (a monk or a friar) it would probably be another matter. But in the middle ages even bishops on occasion wore armor and carried swords into battle. I believe a priest is permitted to defend himself and his flock against violence.

[Tench_Coxe]

Via con Dios!

[TigersEye]

Gallegos is wildly popular with parishioners but has angered his Catholic superiors with his habit of wearing a shiny pistol beneath his robes, despite strict laws in Mexico banning private citizens from carrying guns.

Viva Padre Pistolas!

[hardhead]

I know a Methodist minister right here in the good ol' USA who packs a .45 (legally).

[TERMINATTOR]

Mexicans protest over gun-toting priest's sacking

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Angry parishioners have chained shut a church in central Mexico in protest at the sacking of their priest, whose habit of tucking a gun under his robes has earned him fame and the nickname "Padre Pistolas".

Hundreds of people from the town of Chucandiro demonstrated outside the cathedral in the city of Morelia after Catholic church leaders there defrocked their gunslinging priest, Alfredo Gallegos, local media reported.

"We have closed the church with chains and that's how it will stay until Father Alfredo comes back," protester Gilberto Moron was quoting as saying on Friday, adding that locals would accept no other priest.

Gallegos is wildly popular with parishioners but has angered his Catholic superiors with his habit of wearing a shiny pistol beneath his robes, despite strict laws in Mexico banning private citizens from carrying guns.

Also known for his love of cowboy boots and country music, Gallegos says he only carries a gun for protection, noting several of his friends have been killed over the years.

Locals say he has brought them huge social benefits, helping the marginalized and raising money for roads and hospital projects. "He has united us as a people," said Moron.

Church leaders gave no reason for sacking the priest.

[Rebelbase]

Both of my Pastor's carry.

[PAR35]

Locals say he has brought them huge social benefits, helping the marginalized and raising money for roads and hospital projects. "He has united us as a people," said Moron.

Those sound like code words for a "liberation theology" leftist to me.

[the invisib1e hand]

Governments, even the religious governing bodies of the Catholic Church, can't allow anyone to be too popular with a forbidden idea (Like self defense)

baloney. the Catholic Church regularly backs "forbidden" ideas.

[VOA]

Ah, for the good old days of "The Fighting Father"...