Police in Poland have launched an investigation after photographs were posted on a school website of 14-year-old children licking whipped cream from the knees of a priest.

The series of pictures show boys and girls, apparently pretending to be cats, approaching the priest, seated in a battered armchair, on all fours.

They then take turns at licking cream from his legs in what the school has described as an “initiation ceremony” for first year pupils at the school in the south-west town of Lubin where the priest is also the director…

“This is very disturbing,” said Marek Michalak, the Polish government’s spokesman on child affairs. “Surely the boundaries of decency and acceptable forms of bodily contact have been exceeded. I’ve ordered an enquiry and demanded an explanation from all relevant authorities…”

But the priest involved, Father Marcin Kozyra, defended the “ceremony”.

“There has never been a complaint from either parents or students about any impropriety involved in these games,” he said…

The priest has also won the support of his immediate superior, Father Leja.

Well, that certainly makes it all OK.