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Church gets in a sweat over sauna

THE Catholic Church in Vienna has ruled that a former confessional cannot be used as a sauna, The Telegraph reports.

Bidding on a confessional described on eBay as ideal for conversion into a one-person sauna, a small bar or a children’s playhouse was ended when the archdiocese stepped in.

Archdiocese spokesman Erich Leitenberger told the daily Salzburger Nachrichten on Tuesday that auctioning “objects that were used for dispensing the sacraments is not acceptable.”

Confessionals “should not be converted into saunas or bars,” he said. The confessional was offered for auction in Austria by a Vienna church undergoing renovations.

The highest reported amount offered by one of the 40 bidders before the item was yanked from the internet Monday was 666.66 euros. The number 666 is commonly associated with the Antichrist – or the devil.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .