The small Italian town where the world famous mystic monk Padre Pio is buried was up in arms on Monday after the Vatican named a commissioner to oversee his shrine that generates hundreds of millions of dollars.
People in the southern town of San Giovanni Rotondo took to the streets in solidarity with Capuchin monks, whose leader accused the Vatican of instigating a "climate of persecution" by stripping them of effective control of the shrine.
Padre Pio, who was made a saint last year, is big business. Some eight million pilgrims visit the town each year and can buy everything from Padre Pio pens and statues to Padre Pio telephone cards.
Italian media said the Vatican was concerned about excessive commercialization surrounding the saint and possible financial irregularities in plans for a new, bigger church.
On Monday, residents parked about 10 earth movers, cranes and bulldozers in the square in front of the church where Padre Pio is buried.
Police forced the owners of the heavy vehicles to move them but the climate remained so tense in the town that the mayor had to appeal for calm.
Youths blew whistles in front of the church to support the monks and said they would protest during a planned visit by the newly-named overseer.
Pope John Paul at the weekend gave the bishop of the nearby city of Manfredonia ultimate authority over the shrine and some linked activities, including a large hospital.
Padre Pio, who died in 1968 at the age of 81, had the stigmata -- bleeding wounds in the hands and feet similar to those of Christ. Scientists could not explain the wounds.
One of Italy's most popular saints, he was said to have wrestled with the devil in his monastery cell, predicted events in the lives of visitors, known what penitents were about to confess and been seen in two places at once.
The pope made him a saint in 2002 at a ceremony that drew one of the biggest crowds ever at the Vatican.