Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
This dishy clergyman dubbed “Portugal’s sexiest priest” is lifting his congregation’s spirits during lockdown by live-streaming his masses to smitten devotees every day.
Ricardo Esteves has been labelled “Portugal’s sexiest priest” by local media and is now working to keep believers’ spirits up by streaming his services from the town of Valenca do Minho in northern Portugal’s Viana do Castelo District.
The 37-year-old has become a media phenomena in Portugal and is now streaming his daily masses on Facebook at 10.15 am.
Speaking to local journalist Luis Vilas Espinheira, Esteves said: “Yes, I am a priest, but before that I am a man like any other. What defines us as men and women is not what we think but what we do. Not what we do merely within what our vocation or profession, but essentially our human values and principles.
“I consider myself a simple 37-year-old man at the moment, happy, accomplished in my vocation and in my life as Ricardo. I love life and everything it contains and I love it more and more every day.
“And when I talk about life it’s not just breathing, my heartbeat, but people, animals, the smells of the earth, the smell of childhood, being at the table with friends, being at the beach, doing sport.”
The priest also made an appearance on TV show ‘Voce na TV!’ (You’re On TV!’) where he said the term “sexy priest” had come from “false media coverage.”
When host Manuel Luis Goucha asked the priest about photos which appeared in the media of him topless at a beach the priest said: “That photograph was taken with some friends at the beach. How do people go to the beach? Should I go in my habit?”
Goucha then joked: “No, no, with that body it would be a real waste.”
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