Italian priest's Christmas flyer: Women incite domestic violence with cold dinners

A Catholic priest in Italy has created a firestorm by claiming that women bring violence on themselves by serving cold food and dressing provocatively.

Father Piero Corsi of Liguria sparked outrage after members of his congregation posted his Christmas bulletin onto Facebook. The flyer, entitled "Women and femicide - healthy self-criticism. How often do they provoke?" said victims of domestic and sexual violence should question if they were themselves to blame for the incident.

The flyer said women "provoke the worst instincts" and "should search their consciences and ask: did we bring this on ourselves?"

"The fact is that women are increasingly provocative, they become arrogant, they believe themselves to be self-sufficient and end up exacerbating the situation," Corsi added. "Children are abandoned to their own devices, homes are dirty, meals are cold or fast food, clothes are filthy."

He later added fuel to the fire by suggesting an Italian reporter must be gay if he wasn't enticed by a picture of a nude woman.

Following the uproar in Italy, Corsi said he plans "to take a period of rest."

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