"I am really sorry."
A priest accidentally had protected 300-year-old frescoes repainted in his church on the Spanish island of Tenerife.
The tragedy, which occurred at the Saint-Antoine de Padua church, sparked the anger of the local population and an investigation by the government of the Canary Islands.
Héctor Lunar apologized
“to all competent authorities”.
He also explained to the local newspaper
El Día
“not having been warned”
of the presence of frescoes under the special layer of paint, which came to protect the works awaiting renovation.
“My mistake was not to have informed myself of the riches of the Saint-Antoine de Padua church,
” he apologized.
My intention was not to cause damage when I wanted to improve the church for Holy Week.”
This is not the first time that the priest has been talked about.
According to the Spanish newspaper, Héctor Lunar fled Venezuela, his country of origin, four years ago after being threatened for criticizing the regime of President Nicolas Maduro.
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“If they’re going to punish me, they should punish me!”
, exclaimed the priest.
And it will be done.
The local religious brotherhood demanded the replacement of Héctor Lunar as priest and denounced the facts to the town hall so that measures could be taken.
Esther Morales, the mayor of the town of El Tanque hopes that
“everything can return to normal as quickly as possible”.
To the newspaper
El
Día,
she confides that we will still have to
“wait for the report from the region's heritage service to see the extent of the damage”
.
The deterioration of this church built in the 18th century aroused the anger of locals and Catholic organizations.
The news quickly made the rounds in the Spanish media, which did not hesitate to compare the event with the restoration of a fresco of Christ
,
in Borja, in 2012. At the time, Cecilia Gimenez, an amateur painter, gave herself to mission to restore the work which is more than a century old.
As a result, the new face of Christ is unrecognizable and goes viral on the Internet, arousing the anger of locals but the interest of tourists.
So much so that Internet users rename him “Monkey Christ”.