Woman pushes priest | [FACT CHECK] Did this woman push priest off stage for saying "fat women don't

The unidentified woman was listening from the audience when Father Marcelo Rossi said, "fat women don't go to heaven".  |  Photo Credit: Twitter

Key Highlights

• A Brazilian woman pushed a Catholic priest off stage during live stream of a ceremony

• The incident was reported from Cachoeira Paulista, São Paulo in Brazil on Sunday

• The unidentified woman was detained by local police

• A video of the incident has gone viral on the internet

São Paulo, Brazil: A video of a woman pushing a priest off stage during a live broadcast is doing rounds on social media. The incident was reported from Cachoeira Paulista, São Paulo in Brazil at around 3 pm on Sunday.

The unidentified woman was listening from the audience during a ceremony at the headquarters of Canção Nova, a Brazilian Catholic community known for broadcasting religious material online. The woman rushed past the security and approached the priest. 

In the 7-second footage, which has now gone viral, the woman wearing a white t-shirt and carrying a handbag can be seen running towards the priest from his right-hand side. She pushes the priest off the stage leaving the audience in shock. As the microphones pick up the sound of the priest's fall, the woman appears to be smiling.

Watch the viral video here:

The Catholic priest was addressing the masses during the closing ceremony of a youth camp. About 50,000 people were present.

The priest was reportedly not seriously injured and he returned to the stage to complete his sermon which was being streamed online. He referred to the attack after returning to the stage. "It hurt, but pay close attention. I was just going to talk about pain but I did not imagine it was going to be like this."

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The 32-year-old culprit had travelled to the youth camp from Rio de Janeiro. She was detained by local police. Earlier, there were claims that the woman had pushed him off the stage after he said the "fat women won't go to heaven". However, it has come to the fore that the reason behind the woman's actions were unclear. It is believed that she has mental health problems.

Canção Nova, in a statement, said that it regretted the incident. "The priest is well. He was attended by the medical staff at the event and presided over the celebration to the end," it added.

As expected, the video did not take much time to go viral. It has been viewed over 9.4 million times. Here are some of the reactions:

A user said, "What she did is God's action."

While another wrote, "Hypocrite priest, that's why."

A third user commented, "Powerful push...now it was push from heaven."

Yet another said, "She is a hero."

Corrigendum: This is an updated version of the story. The original story published on July 21, 2019 claimed that the priest was pushed off stage by the Brazilian woman for allegedly saying 'fat women won't go to heaven'. The motive behind her action was later found to be inconsistent with the facts, hence the story was updated later to reflect the new inputs.

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