On Tuesday, TMZ published photos of Mel Gibson with his 14 month-old daughter, Lucia, that were taken at a function at his ultra-conservative Catholic Church. Mel’s church is based on a version of Catholicism that doesn’t recognize any changes to Catholicism post 1962, which is when the Vatican decided to allow for annulments of marriages. (Here’s a link to a good overview of their beliefs) So Mel getting separated and taking up with Lucia’s mom at the time, Oksana Grigorieva, was a huge scandal in his church, where the members have more conservative beliefs than typical Catholics. Under the doctrine of his own church, Mel was committing adultery and shouldn’t have even been taking communion. (He can probably get communion now, since the relationship is over, as long as he made a full confession.)
As a result of some of the fallout over his then-relationship with Oksana, Mel made a rambling speech at the church in June of last year threatening people not to talk about him. Radar quoted a source who said that Mel “got up on his stage — the altar — and went off. He tried to intimidate the parishioners by staring at everyone with his angry eyes. Mel even threatened to shut down the church if people kept gossiping about him.” Mel didn’t shut the church down back then, but we know how Mel’s relationship with Oksana turned out, and I would bet that a lot of parishioners are driving him crazy with variations of “told you so.”
Anyway Mel’s church posted a notice that it’s no longer offering mass pending further notice. TMZ reports that it’s due to those photos of Lucia that were taken on church property.
Mel Gibson’s mega church is putting the brakes on all congregational services because of a picture that was taken on church grounds this weekend and then passed on to TMZ.
Sources connected with the church tell us … Gibson was “extremely concerned about the invasion of privacy.” One source adds, “He is not just concerned that photos of his daughter were taken at the church, he is concerned for the privacy of his parishioners.”
Members of the Holy Family Chapel in Agoura, CA received an email notice from church honchos yesterday which read, “There will be no Masses here at Holy Family Chapel until further notice.”
Our sources tell us, however, that limited services will continue to be provided. In fact, a service was conducted yesterday — the Holy Day of Obligation — for long term parishioners.
[From TMZ]
You know that Gibson was ranting and raving over those photos for hours.
Last year Mel’s church started making new parisioners fill out applications to join, in order to weed out anyone who would tattle about Mel to the tabloids. It sounds like they’re now only holding mass for people they know and are shutting out the public as much as possible. It’s too bad that tax exempt status isn’t just reserved for public churches.
Lucia is really cute and she looks so happy and well adjusted. I hope that Mel has a nanny for the girl and that he’s not the one responsible for her care when he has custody.
Photos are from 2/4/10 and 2/23/10. Credit: WENN.com
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