Fermín Cabanillas I La Campana (Seville), (EFE).- A whole town rose up against the decision to change the priest of their parish for another. This is what is happening this week in the Sevillian town of La Campana, since last Tuesday their neighbors met that they were left without their priest, Miguel Morilla, who arrived in the town in 2019, when the Archbishopric moved him to Gilena, 70 kilometers away. of this parish.
The first news came tricklingly on Tuesday, and 24 hours later some 1,500 residents gathered in the square of the Church of Santa María de la Blanca to show their support for the 41-year-old priest and ask him not to move from town. where, the neighbors explain, he has done work that goes beyond evangelization, bringing the Church closer to people who, until 2019, saw it as something distant and inaccessible.
Miguel, as explained by the residents who are part of the commission created in the town to ask that he not leave, is a man with a strong presence on social networks, “who mixes with people without problems”, and who in only four years he has worked to, among other things, help to restore the convent of San Sebastián, one of the jewels of the town.
From Cordoba
He came from the Church of Guadalcázar (Córdoba), he is an active rociero (Chaplain of the Brotherhood of Lucena) or a trainer in the Minor Seminary of San Pelagio. And attached to the parish of San Juan and Todos los Santos, in the Cordovan neighborhood of La Trinidad.
His versatile training and human capacity are defended by, among others, Ángela María Durán, a member of the commission, who regrets that, among the reasons that could have influenced the decision to transfer, there could be “false accusations that he has suffered on social networks, from people who have accused him of being a pedophile, a drunkard, promoting prostitution or not respecting celibacy, without ever having been able to defend or respect his presumption of innocence”.
“They have been very unfair to him, because this man has a stained dignity and the only thing we want is for this priest to spend time here to clean this dignity.” And do not take advantage of the summer, when transfers between parishes are approved, “to move it from here and leave stained.”
The same spokeswoman regrets that they have not yet been able to receive them in the Archdiocese of the province to “have a seated, calm conversation, talking and exposing what we want to tell them”, although while EFE is speaking with the representatives of the commission there is a Palace representative meeting with the priest, in response to the echo that the protests of the neighbors are having.
Defend the priest’s honor
“We are not here because this man is a good man, but because this man is a parish priest who has not been allowed to exercise his function, that his function is none other than to evangelize and he has done very well among the people. who have approached him ”, he sentences.
His partner Manuel Romero stresses that “what we want is to defend Miguel, and we are not against anyone, not even the one who comes”, but defending the honor of the priest is a priority for the bell ringers, it has become a priority, ” knowing that at any moment they can change him, of course, like any priest in any parish, but this person here has been harassed, they have accused him and we first defend the defense of his honor ”.
The promoters of the initiative affirm that they represent the will of 99% of the people, even above religious beliefs, because Miguel took office in September 2019 “and the truth is that it was a sudden change with respect to the management that the previous eleven years we had in the Parish”.
For now, the residents are making efforts to try to get the decision reversed, and they have already managed to get two vicars of the Archbishopric to come this Sunday to meet with them and listen to their proposals, but they are clear that they are not going to rest until, when the September, Miguel continues giving mass in this town and mingling with the people in its streets or bars without asking them who they pray to or how many times they receive communion throughout the year. EFE