Priest confesses to Madonna threat

Like a prayer? More like a prank call.

A 63-year-old Dutch priest has confessed to calling in a phony bomb threat last week before a pair of Madonna concerts in Amsterdam in a last-ditch effort to stop the singer from staging her mock-crucifixion act, officials said Friday.

The would-be terrorist was easily identified as he used his home phone to make the call to an emergency services line, where it was automatically traced, officials said.

Officials said they never believed that threat was credible.

"We take bomb threats seriously, but in this case it was clear very quickly that it was not real," Amsterdam prosecution spokesman Robert Meulenbroek told the Associated Press.

The priest appeared before a judge Friday and was released, pending judgment. As it was his first offense, he will likely be sentenced to community service, officials said.

The concerts went forward without incident on Sunday and Monday, despite the best efforts of a handful of protesters.

The Material Girl's mock-crucifixion scenario has drawn ire from religious figures in almost every location her World Is My Dance Floor tour has touched down.

In Rome, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim leaders came together in a rare show of unity to object to the singer's act taking place in the cradle of Christianity.

In Duesseldorf, prosecutors threatened to toss the pop star in the lockup if her act was construed as offensive to religious beliefs--a violation of German law.

However, the Dutch priest was the first to really blow his top over the issue.

After her Amsterdam showing, Madonna and entourage moved onto Prague, where she performed two sold-out shows on Wednesday and Thursday. (Unsurprisingly, Czech religious figures added their voices to the chorus of objections to the mock-crucifixion scene.)

The Confessions on a Dance Floor singer next performs in Moscow on Sept. 12. The date was rescheduled and moved to a different venue last month due to security concerns.