Must be a slow news day

Especially for a media that usually tends to be more hostile than deferential, to Catholic religious practice...

A senior New Brunswick Roman Catholic priest is demanding the Prime Minister's Office explain what happened to the sacramental communion wafer Stephen Harper was given at Roméo LeBlanc's funeral mass.

During communion at the solemn and dignified service held last Friday in Memramcook for the former governor general, the prime minister slipped the thin wafer that Catholics call "the host" into his jacket pocket.

In Catholic understanding, the host - once consecrated by a priest for the Eucharist - becomes the body and blood of Jesus Christ. It is crucial that the small wafer be consumed when it is received.

Monsignor Brian Henneberry, vicar general and chancellor in the Diocese of Saint John, wants to know whether the prime minister consumed the host and, if not, what happened to it.

If Harper accepted the host but did not consume it, "it's worse than a faux pas, it's a scandal from the Catholic point of view," he said.

Which leads one to wonder what the reaction would be had he chewed it up and spit it back out.

The Catholic Church really needs to get a grip, if this is what ruffles feathers over there.  As for demanding that the PM's office spend valuable time issuing a statement to address this concern...don't you think they just might have more important matters to address?

h/t

Comments

[Allan]

I guess I should explain something. A consecrated host is not a piece of bread. It is the actual body of Christ. Defiling it would be the equivilent of attending a Buddist funeral and pi$$ing on the statue of the big fat guy.

Of course, Harper is not a Catholic, and cannot be faulted. He may have even thought "I'm not a Catholic so I really shouldn't receive communion" and pocketed it out of misguided respect. The fault lies with the priest, who is not supposed to distribute communion to non-Catholics, and who is responsible for ensuring the Eucharist is consumed immediately by the comminicant.