Archbishop Alois Kothgasser of Salzburg, Austria, second from the left, joins hands with a clown at the altar during a Mass on October 16, 2004. The "clown-doctors," as they call themselves, wear white hospital coats and large red noses. They specialize in visiting hospitals to make patients laugh.

Under the same pretext of amusing the audience, the Archbishop invites clowns to the altar, thus making the Mass the opposite of what it should represent: the seriousness of the Sacrifice of Calvary.

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