Death in Church Couldn't Stop Mass

Nothing could stop Mass in a small church in Trento, Italy, not even death:

Pio Lieta, 86, suffered a fatal heart attack during an early-morning service at the Church of the White Madonna last Sunday.

An ambulance was called, and Mr Lieta, whose name means "pious" in Italian, was pronounced dead at the scene.

However, instead of halting the Mass, Father Mario Peron asked for the body to be covered with a white cloth and left Mr Lieta in the nave of the church while he finished the service.

It is against Italian law to move a body without the authorisation of a local magistrate.

"What could I have done?" said Fr Peron afterwards. "The Holy Mass has to be celebrated. It is not right to make an exception for one individual. Only people who do not understand the point of Mass would not understand the logic of my decision. We could not stop. We were united together in church and we prayed for him."

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Kind of a prolonged last rites.
Of course, some folks take the opportunity to grind their axes here.

I wonder how many people were really paying attention to the mass by that point.
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Im not too religious but I see how this is OK. They called the ambulance and prayed for the man who had died. To me that seems very respectful. They might not be physically moving the man but they are... I guess mentally... helping him in the best and only way they could have. As Fazia said...they're not at a rock concert. Theyre at church where the body probably would have ended up at a later time for the same kind of prayer.
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