Savona, January 22 - A parish priest refused to bless the body of a Moroccan Muslim woman who was about to convert to Christianity, ANSA learned Friday. Father Angelo Chizzolini, a parish priest in the Liguria town of Arnasco, denied the blessing to Aicha Bellamoudden, one of five victims of a building collapse last Friday. The woman, whose husband Dino Andrei also died in the collapse caused by a gas leak, had almost completed the process of converting to Christianity and was about to be baptized. Bishop Guglielmo Borghetti had authorized a church funeral for her as well as her husband and the other victims because of her imminent conversion. Father Chizzolini denied passing over Bellamoudden's coffin and not mentioning her in his homily during the funeral ceremony in church. "I did everything I was supposed to do," he told Borghetti, who relayed his statement to ANSA. "It's not true that I didn't mention Aicha and that I didn't bless the coffin". Chizzolini sparked controversy last summer by saying he'd rather burn his rectory down than open it to asylum seekers, as Pope Francis had called on all parish priests to do.