Michigan Priest Shoots Churchgoers With Holy Water Squirt Gun

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Michigan Priest Shoots Churchgoers With Holy Water Squirt Gun

While practicing social distancing and still offering blessings, a Michigan priest has gone viral after photos emerged of him pointing and shooting at his churchgoers with a squirt gun filled with holy water as they drove by.

Shocked by how fast the photos made their rounds across the internet, Father Tim Pelc tells BuzzFeed, “It even had two hits in the Vatican, which sort of concerned me but I haven’t heard anything yet.” The whole idea began as Holy Week approached in April at St. Ambrose Parish. Father Pelc decided he’d bless his parishioners using a water gun, and offer Easter baskets, all while practicing social distancing.

Pelc adds, “The original idea was to do something for the kids of the parish. They were about ready to have an Easter unlike any of their past, so I thought, what can we still do that would observe all the protocols of social distancing?” Pelc says he ran the idea past an emergency room doctor in Detroit, “He said, ‘not only is this safe, this is fun,’ and he came with his kids. He provided me with all the personal protection stuff that I needed. The sun was out, we had a nice turnout. It was a way of continuing an ancient custom, and people seemed to enjoy it.”

Pelc explains how amazed he was to see how people al over the world connected with the photos, stating, “It was a good news story and people were in the mood for something like that. It was big in Ukraine, and the Germans are funny, that led to a whole sub discussion about the types of water pistols. It even had two hits in the Vatican, which sort of concerned me but I haven’t heard anything yet.”