London, June 4 : A couple has been caught having sex in a cathedral confession box during a 7am mass.

After learning of the activities through worshippers, the stunned bishop informed the police.

Cops pulled back a curtain and found two goths in their 30s engaged in a sex act in Cesena, Italy.

“One of them was kneeling but neither was praying,” The Sun quoted a source, as saying.

The couple, who were booked for indecency, claimed they were atheists and that having sex in a church was no different to anywhere else.

The 700-year-old cathedral will have to be purified to “restore its sanctity”, officials said. (ANI)