Downpatrick, UK - A parish priest has condemned a group of teenagers who assaulted a fellow priest in the grounds of a church.
Father Pat Sheehan was attacked last Tuesday at St Colmcille's Church, Downpatrick, after asking the group of boys and girls to stop drinking.
Fr Sheehan was not injured but was left "shaken and very badly traumatised".
Fr Sean Rogan said his colleague had been put "in grave danger" of being "very seriously assaulted" and that his glasses were broken in the attack.
"I think the basis of all this anti-social behaviour is a lack of respect for person, place and things. When one loses respect for oneself, one loses respect for others," he said.
"There has been a huge wave of sympathy for him and outrage at what has happened."