(ANSA) - Trento, September 4 - Tourists were shocked on
Thursday after seeing bathroom direction signs prominently
featured in an altar at Palermo's landmark cathedral.
Two large signs reading "WC Toilette" with large arrows
indicating where to go to find said bathroom were placed in
front and in an altar, causing uproar from parish goers and
tourists.
"I can't believe it. How could they put a bathroom behind
an altar?" one tourist said.
In a phone interview with Ansa, Parish priest Filippo
Sarullo said that lack of space was reason for incorporating a
bathroom into the non-Eucharist celebrating altar.
"That is the only place in the entire cathedral where a
bathroom could be placed. I am sorry about the complaints of
the faithful, but we prefer to provide a service rather than not
provide it. This is an altar where no one celebrates, the
tabernacle does not preserve the Eucharist. That would indeed be
serious", Sarullo said.
According to the diocese of Palermo, the bathroom has been
there for "years".
Altar bathroom shocks tourists at Palermo's cathedral
'It's been there for years' says diocese