A parish priest has defended himself after provoking a scandal in a small northern Italian town when he asked a child to help him serve holy communion.

Father Eros Accorigi said he had been without “an extraordinary minister of communion” during a recent Sunday mass at Santi Vito, Modesto e Crescenzia church in Ossanesga, a town in Bergamo province, and so chose an altar girl who he said appeared to have “the purest heart among so many sinners” to assist him.

The scene was filmed and shared on Gloria.tv, a Catholic video-sharing news site, prompting a furious email from churchgoers to the bishop of Bergamo in which they denounced a “liturgical horror”.