The fallout over appointments by Gozo Bishop Mario Grech which has developed between the Leone Band Club of Victoria, and the Gozo Curia took a turn for the worse on Sunday as the band club told its supporters to boycott the newly appointed archpriest of the Cathedral.

Club president Michael Caruana, quoting the Gospel of St John, said the sheep only follow their shepherd but they will flee strangers “for they do not know the voice of strangers”.

He reiterated the band club’s position that former archpriest Mgr Joe Vella Gauci carried his duties excellently for the past 12 years and that the parishioners hold him as their true pastor.

Dr Caruana said the way the curia appointed the new archpriest, Mgr Guzepp Attard, without consulting the parish’s bodies fell short of its preaching about the participation of lay people in ecclesiastical life.

To this end, the band committee issued a boycott against attendance of pontifical functions at the cathedral, on activities organised by the new archpriest, on his formal installation and committees presided by him and Radju Katidral programmes.

The Gozo Curia, in a statement, pointed out that nine parish priests have been replaced in the past two years and each community reacted with maturity and total communion with the bishop. This attitude, said the curia, was of comfort to the bishop and the parish priests, who are his collaborators, as it is a sign that the Gozitan Church is growing in Jesus Christ and his Gospel.

The College of Parish Priests has expressed loyalty to the Bishop.