MADRID • A steamy music video featuring erotic dancing and pixelated nudity in a Spanish cathedral has sparked fury among the faithful, pushing a priest out and forcing an anguished archbishop to apologise.

Filmed inside Toledo cathedral near Madrid and released last Friday, the clip sees Spanish rapper C. Tangana locking limbs with Argentine singer Nathy Peluso while stunned worshippers peek from behind pillars.

"I was an atheist, but now I believe/Because a miracle like you must have come from heaven," sing the pair, both of whom have won multiple Latin Grammys.

In one sequence, Peluso dances nude behind several strategically placed pixels. In another, she is in a particularly provocative pose with the rapper, the image drawing particular ire on Twitter.

"I would like to know for what price Toledo cathedral sold the sacredness of the sanctuary to C. Tangana. I would like to know if the archbishop agrees with the desecration of his episcopal see," tweeted Fray Hernando de Talavera, an account named after a 15th-century bishop.

In a statement released after the video emerged, Toledo's archbishop Francisco Cerro Chaves hastily asked for forgiveness in a statement which said he was "completely unaware" of the project or its content.

He expressed "deep regret over the incident and deeply deplores the footage filmed" in the cathedral, it added.

But the controversy did not stop there, with the cathedral's dean, Mr Juan Miguel Ferrer, who gave his blessing to the project, handing in his resignation on Tuesday.

Asking "forgiveness" for "any mistakes that may have been committed in word, in deed and in omission in the events of the last few days", the dean said it seemed right to tender his resignation, effective from tomorrow, a statement said.

His resignation was accepted by the archbishop, who invited the faithful to join a mass on Sunday for the "purification" of the cathedral following the video shoot.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE