ANDREAS LAUN, an Austrian bishop, has described the Love Parade festival – and participation in it – as “a rebellion against creation and against God’s order, (which) are sins and an invitation to sin”.

The annual German music event was moved the city of Duisberg, near Dusseldorf. About 1.5 million people were believed to have attended the festival.

Poor planning has been blamed for a crowd crush inside the tunnel, which was the entrance to the event. It resulted in 21 people being killed and at least 500 others injured.

The festival was permanently cancelled in response to the tragedy.

Last week, Laun wrote on a Catholic blog: “Love Parade equals sin equals misfortune equals punishment by God”.

Laun’s comments have drawn outrage from the families of victims and from survivors – and highlighted another point of disconnect between the Catholic church and laypeople, some have said.

His comments about the Love Parade come just after controversial comments made by another Austrian priest, Gerhard Maria Wagner, who labelled Haiti’s devastating earthquake as “God’s punishment of human sin”. Wagner implied that god had punished the country with a natural disaster because “nine in ten people living there believe in voodoo”.