Priest, facing transfer, hangs himself

(ANSA) - Livorno, June 1 - A Roman Catholic priest who did not want to leave the Tuscan parish where he had worked for 15 years hanged himself Monday in an attic in his parish church, police and Church officials said.
    The clergyman, aged 54, who was not immediately named, had been assigned by his bishop to leave the seaside city of Livorno and move to a parish in Venice, a move that neither he nor his parishioners agreed with, police sources said.
    "He had already started to get all the boxes ready for his personal effects, starting to empty his flat," said a parishioner.
    "But he was not himself, he was very down".
    What he disagreed with was not being transferred but the style in which the transfer was made, parishioners said.
    "I am in the attic, call 118 as I don't want you to find me like this," the suicidal priest wrote in a note.