Loyalists opposed to the staging of a Cemetery Sunday blessing of graves have threatened to exhume bodies and to urinate on the resting places of Catholics in a shared graveyard in Co Antrim, a parish priest has said.
The threat follows protests against the blessing of graves in a municipal cemetery at Carnmoney by Glengormley priest Fr Dan Whyte that was finally staged on Sunday.
The annual Cemetery Sunday blessing of graves was held up for a time on Sunday by protests mounted by placard-carrying Protestants.
Their banners said "No Catholic blessing of Protestant graves", "Stop Cemetery Sunday now" and "No Whiterock, then no cemetery" - a reference to the forced rerouting of last month's disputed Orange march which sparked prolonged street violence and the postponement of the original Cemetery Sunday blessing.
"I was disappointed when I learned that later there was a protest that degenerated into a noisy chorus of sectarian verbal assault," Fr Whyte said.
After the service, but before learning of the threats to desecrate graves, Fr Whyte said that at one stage he thought the worst days of violent protests were over. However, he then heard that "verbal threats of grave desecration" had been made.
"We had worshippers enduring direct threats to dig up the dead and to urinate on their graves." He urged Catholics and Protestants to stand together in the face of such sectarianism.
Fr Whyte was told of death threats against him two years ago after violent anti-Catholic protests near the cemetery.
Graves have been attacked and desecrated, including that of Catholic postal worker Danny McColgan, who was murdered by the UDA as he worked in the loyalist Rathcoole estate in January 2002.
Ulster Unionist peer Lord Maginnis said: "It would be wrong for any responsible unionist leader to do other than totally and unequivocally condemn the protests that occurred at Carnmoney.
"These protests in themselves are wrong," he stressed.
Citizens everywhere had an "absolute right" to worship in peace, he added. "It is a right that should be unimpeded from Drumcree to Carnmoney and I am ashamed that any of my so-called fellow Protestants would act to hinder any church activity."
William de Courcy, the DUP mayor of Newtownabbey, said he was disappointed the protest took place, but stood by a general right to protest.
"I think it's sad that they have to do it at a time of such sadness and such sacredness of the Catholic community," he said.
Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey said although he did not believe the majority of unionists supported the protests, all politicians needed to combat prejudice. "I have no doubt that many would reject these scenes of squalid sectarianism allegedly being carried out in their name.
"There is a huge job of work required by those with influence within the broader unionist community to tackle sectarianism," he said.
SDLP Assembly member Thomas Burns said: "People have an undeniable right to visit relatives that have been laid to rest in peace in the cemetery."
He added: "They should not be expected to run a gauntlet of hate and abuse to get there. They are not political pawns or bargaining chips in any other process."