A village priest has been suspended for organising an Oranje mass ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final between the Netherlands and Spain.

Father Paul Vlaar from the village of Obdam, northeast of Alkmaar, wore orange robes and filled the church with football flags. He also prayed for the team.
The bishop of Haarlem suspended the priest saying the mass was inappropriate.
The football mass did ‘insufficient justice to the sanctity of the Eucharist,’ the bishop said in a statement. ‘The footage of this has caused indignation among faithful here and abroad.’
Father Vlaar has been warned previously about unsuitable behaviour for mixing mass and ‘profane’ international events, the statement said.