Woman pushes priest accused of homophobia off a stage in Brazil

Earlier this week, dramatic footage emerged from Brazil where a priest was violently pushed off of a stage during a sermon that was being live-streamed on the internet.

The moment occurred on July 14, when Padre Marcelo Rossi was talking to a crowd believed to be in the region of 50,000 people at a youth retreat in Cachoeira Paulista.

Snopesreports that Rossi's speech was cut from the stream but the clip emerged on social media after it was shared by a Twitter user called 'Figen' who claimed that he had said that 'fat women cannot go to heaven.'

The clip has been viewed close to one million times on Twitter but the quote attached to it has already been debunked.

Snopes report that what Rossi said can loosely be translated as the following:

These hands no more belong to me. The sinner is weak, but these hands belong to both the priest and in the person of Christ to serve you well.

It has not been disclosed why the 32-year-old woman chose to attack the priest but she was taken to a local police, where her friends, hailing from Rio de Janeiro, said that the woman suffers from mental health issues. According to the publication Odia, she reportedly said that what happened was "between him and me."

Rossi has since added that he was unharmed following the incident and would not be pressing charges. In a video posted by Globohe said:

I’m fine. Rest assured, just a couple of pains, you did not break anything.

While Rossi may have been cleared of saying anything defamatory about women's weight he has in the past been accused of promoting homophobia.

According to Pink News, Rossi who is one of the most well-known priests in Brazil once said on national TV:

A lot of ideas will change the day homosexuality is proven to be an illness.

HT Snopes

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