A PRIEST in Galicia has gone on strike because he is 'fed up with his parishioners' after three weeks of constant rows.
Father Luis Manuel González works in the parish of Albeos in the village of Crecente (Pontevedra province), which is home to about 2,000 inhabitants.
He caused a stir on All Saints' Day, November 1, when he shut the cemetery on a day when Spaniards traditionally go to tend to their loved ones' graves.
According to the priest, none of the locals had paid their cemetery tax – just €3 per grave per year – and had not bothered with the state of the graves and niches since the previous November 1.
They were generally very neglected and with dead flowers.
These taxes are to cover the cost of maintaining the cemetery, and are generally much higher than €3 a year.
Father Luis Manuel's actions caused uproar in the village, but nobody was willing to pay their annual €3 tax or clean up their relatives' niches to solve the problem.
The priest was told by the Diocese that he was not allowed to shut the graveyard, but after being forced to reopen it, he went on strike and has left the population of Crecente without their usual evening mass.
He still gives mass in all the other parishes in the area, but has refused to do so in Albeos.
