Webster Cook says that, instead of eating a Eucharist wafer as he was expected to do during the Sacrament of Holy Communion, he smuggled the blessed piece of bread out of mass. Once blessed, the piece of bread is viewed by Catholics as the true Body of Christ. (click here to learn more)
Catholics worldwide became furious.
Webster’s friend, who didn’t want to show his face, said he took the Eucharist, to show him what it meant to Catholics.
Webster gave the wafer back, but the Catholic League, a national watchdog organization for Catholic rights claims that is not enough.
“We don’t know 100% what Mr. Cooks motivation was,” said Susan Fani a spokesperson with the local Catholic League. “However, if anything were to qualify as a hate crime, to us this seems like this might be it.”
HT: IT'S A FRACKIN’ CRACKER!
JJ from Florida marvels at what a mess we've made of principles we the people used to understand and respect:"Like School, College Hardly Academic Environment Anymore!"
ReplyDeleteLet me start by saying that I'm not defending the death threats this guy is receiving. Such a response is not appropriate. If anything, they only demonstrate the strong feelings people have about this incident. What so many fail to understand is that we Catholics DO believe the Eucharist to be the body of Christ. Think about it, Jesus Christ himself in this world in our day and age. That's not something small and insignificant.
ReplyDeleteEven though you and others may not believe in the Eucharist, recognize the fact that others do. People should respect the religious beliefs of others, even if they don't share them.
In response to the notion that the Eucharist is "just a cracker", then why would this guy or anybody else decide to participate in a Catholic Mass and take the Eucharist? If he wants to show his friend a cracker, he can go to the supermarket and get some there. Obviously, by this act, he indirectly admits that there is something more significant to the Eucharist than just its substance.
Let me close with this... if there was a bonafide curiousity by this guy and his friend about the Eucharist and Catholic beliefs, might I suggest a conversation with a Catholic priest. I'm sure such a meeting would be much more warmly received than the actions this guy chose to do.
My primary interest as a prublic school policy specialist, is that the Catholic Mass was in a public university's student union, and "the guy" was a student government senator at that university, apparently Catholic and not planning the disruption that ensued when, according to his own testimony, he was verbally and then physically assaulted, restrained from leaving without swallowing the wafer and I believe then followed as he left.
ReplyDeleteSO now public university police are on guard during the Catholic Mass (still in the public university's student union) and the public university's student Senate is impeaching the guy to remove him from his elected political seat, and Bill Donohue of the Catholic League wants him expelled from the public university too, and more armed guards on duty across the country during the Republican National Convention (are they planning Mass and Communion there too, on a public school campus?)
It's all quite frame-bending. I wouldn't be too quick to conclude it was a straightforward story of some snot-nosed kid being disrespectful to Jesus and the Pope. I think there's a WHOLE bunch going on here that the general public might want to think more about and try to sort out.