Alarm in Italy as growth of Satanism creates “market” for consecrated hosts

Because of his awesome sacrifice on the cross, which none can really comprehend, I pray or offer any sort of sacrifice (fasting, prayer, good works,etc) and unite it to Jesus on the Cross of two thousand years ago and offer it to the Father. I believe my little sacrifice will be made "big" because it's united to Jesus.

Diamond, I am a Roman Catholic, attending Divine Liturgy at a Maronite Catholic Church. The Maronite liturgy is one of the oldest in the Catholic Church. St. Peter and other Apostles brought the liturgy of the Last Supper to Antioch where it developed in Greek and Syriac concurrently. In fact, the Consecretation is in Aramaic, using the words and language of our Lord, at the Last Supper.

The Maronites recognize all the catholic saints but take great pride in those who come from their tradition. Given what you have posted, I would like to share the following story with you, about St. Charbel, a Maronite monk. I believe you will appreciate this saint's tremendous faith.

* * * * *

On May 8, 1828 in a mountain village of Biqa-Kafra, Lebanon, Charbel was born to a poor Maronite Family. From childhood his life revealed a calling to "bear fruit as a noble Cedar of Lebanon."

Charbel "grew in age and wisdom before God and men." At 23 years old he entered the monastery of Our Lady of Lebanon (north of Byblos) where he became a novice. After two years of novitiate, in 1853, he was sent to St. Maron monastery where he pronounced the monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Charbel was then transferred to the monastery of Kiffan where he studied philosophy and theology. His ordination to the priesthood took place in 1853, after which he was sent back to St. Maron monastery. His teacher provided him a good education and nurtured within him a deep love for monastic life.

During his 16 years at St. Maron monastery, Charbel performed his priestly ministry and his monastic duties in an edifying way. He totally dedicated himself to Christ with undivided heart and desired to live in silence before the Nameless One.

In 1875 Charbel was granted permission to live as a hermit on the hill nearby the monastery at St. Peter and Paul hermitage. His 23 years of solitary life were lived in a spirit of total abandonment to God.

Charbel's companies in hermitage were the Son of God, as encountered in the Scriptures and in the Eucharist, and the Blessed Mother. The Eucharist became the center of his life. He consumed the Bread of Life and was consumed by it. Though his hermit did not have a place in the world, the world had a great place in his heart. Through prayer and penance he offered himself as a sacrifice so that the world would return to God.

It is in this light that one sees the importance of the following Eucharistic prayer in his life:

"Father of Truth, behold Your Son a sacrificed
pleasing to You, accept the offering of Him who died for me…"

On December 16, 1898 while reciting the "Father of Truth" prayer at the Holy Liturgy Charbel suffered a stoke. He died on Christmas Eve at the age of 70. Through faith this hermit received the Word of God and through love he continued the Mystery of Incarnation.

To the Grave

Father Charbel spent the night before Christmas, 1898 in church, following his usual custom of twenty-three years, ever since he became a hermit at the hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul on the mountain of Annays. He did not waver from this praiseworthy custom. But that last night, he was lying down, neither awake, nor praying, nor meditating; he was asleep, sleeping the sleep of death. His soul, however, was with God, quite awake, in the eternal awakening. This was the last night Father Charbel would spend in the church of Saints Peter and Paul. Contrary to his custom and for the first time, Father Charbel was lying on the floor, over the mat of hair, with his face exposed.

Please note that people never saw his face when he was alive. He always kept his head down in church, at work or when walking, always looking to the ground. He would lift his eyes only to heaven. When in church, he always faced the altar with his eyes fixed on the tabernacle. However, when he died and was Lying face upward, his eyes were closed, still not looking at anyone, exactly as in his lifetime. Holding vigil at the body of the Servant of God in church, were his companions of the hermitage, Father Macarius Mishmshany, and Brother Francis of Artaba, along with a group of monks from the monastery of St. Maron. As soon as they learned of the passing of Father Charbel they rushed to the hermitage to kiss his hands and to be blessed by touching his body while bidding him farewell. Many spent most of the night kneeling near him, praying.

The snow was coming down heavily, accumulating on the hermitage and on the neighboring mountains and valleys. It was extremely cold and windy, to a degree that those keeping vigil around the saintly remains were trembling from the severity of the cold. And no wonder. The altitude of the hermitage is one thousand and four hundred meters above sea level, on a high summit exposed to the wind.

Those keeping vigil were asking one another, "If we are suffering so much for only one night in this severe winter, how was Father Charbel able to live twenty-three years here spending every night of his life, kneeling on bamboo, in pain from midnight until the time of his Mass at 9:00 o'clock in the morning, fasting and immobile as the stone statue erected on the floor before the altar. Truly, this hermit was a saint. He endured fatigue, hunger, poverty and cold with the courage of a martyr. Every minute of his life was martyrdom, without complaint. No doubt he is now finding the reward of his marvelous martyrdom, with God."

Father of Truth

(The Last Prayer of Saint Charbel before he died)

Father of truth,

Here is your Son,

The sacrifice in which you are well pleased.

Accept him for he died for me.

So through him I shall be pardoned.

Here is the offering.

Take it from my hands

And so I shall be reconciled with you.

Remember not the sins that I have committed

In front of your Majesty.

Here is the blood which flowered on Golgotha

For my salvation and prays for me.

Out of consideration for this,

Accept my supplication.

I have committed many sins

But your mercy is great.

If you put them in the balance,

Your goodness will have more weight

Than the most mighty mountains.

Look not upon my sins,

But rather on what is offered for them,

For the offering and the sacrifice

Are even greater than the offences.

Because I have sinned,

Your beloved bore the nails and the spear.

His sufferings are enough to satisfy you.

By them I shall live.

Glory be to the Father who sent His Son for us.

Adoration be to the Son who has freed us and ensured our salvation.

Blessed be he who by his love has given life to all.

To him be the glory.

from the Maronite Liturgy.

According to Fr. Buonaiuto, “A true ‘market’ for consecrated hosts exists. They sell for 80-500 euros, depending on the size of the host, the prominence of the church from which they were stolen, and who consecrated them.”

“The highest price is placed on those that are consecrated in the churches of Rome, above all those closest to the Vatican. They are stolen in two ways: from the tabernacle, but also at the time of Holy Communion,” he said.

The devil is a Donatist. Go figure. And I get in trouble for making comments along these lines.

The devil is a Donatist.

I know a little about the Donatist Contraversy, but I'm mystified by this comment.

If that is a general tenet of Catholicism ( and the explanation on how the host becomes the body of Christ, or how the saints or Mary can hear the prayer of every person at the same time,) then why could not God act to restore the bread to its original substance?

I am not good at giving simple and short responses to questions. I am a 'big picture' thinker; I need to see thw whole picture, in order to narrow down any response. My "No" to your question, must qualify as THE shortest response that I have EVER posted to this forum ;-D.

That said, and given your broadened response that includes praying to the BVM and the saints, let us agree to limit ourselves, for the moment, to transubstantiation.

Perhaps the best way for the modern mind to attempt to come to grips with the mystery of the Eucharist is by analogy. Here's one analogy that might help in opening us up to the unfathomable grace that Jesus gives each of us in the Eucharist:

Let's suppose you had a wafer of bread and you exposed it to a source of non-visible, sub-atomic radiation for one minute. Would the bread be the same as it was before this exposure? Remember, nothing that was obvious to your senses took place when the bread was exposed to the radiation...yet we now know that the bread is not the same as it was before. It has changed at the atomic level and there are now some radioactive atoms that make up part of this substance. However, the change that took place can only be perceived with special instrumentation that extends the range of our senses. If you lived two hundred years ago for example, you would not be able to ascertain any change in the bread and would likely think that anyone who told you that the bread was really different was slightly deranged!! Yet it REALLY has been changed. If you ate it you might even get radiation sickness!!

In the Eucharist that Jesus gave us we have a more profound change that takes place. The bread and wine is REALLY changed into Jesus' body and blood. Can we ordinarily tell this with our senses? No. We need something that extends beyond our senses to determine the actual state that exists. That extender of our senses is Faith, a faith and trust in Jesus that believes that if He says it, then even ordinary bread and wine can be changed into His body and blood...and by His words recorded in the Gospels, He clearly says it four different times!!

In 8th Century Italy, in the village of what is now Lanciano, there was a monastery named St. Longinus. A monk who had begun to have real doubts about Jesus' real presence in the Eucharist was celebrating Mass at the monastery. As he spoke the words of the consecration the host changed into a circle of "flesh" surrounding the remaining Eucharist and the wine transformed into visible "blood". The "flesh" remained intact but the "blood" subsequently divided into five separate globules. The monk was reinvigourated in his faith as he witnessed this transformation. He later decided to weigh the "blood" globules and found to his amazement that any combination of the globules was equal in weight to any other combination and that the smallest globule weighed exactly the same as the largest - clearly defying any natural explanation. The "flesh" and "blood" have been maintained in special containers housed in the monastery and its successors ever since. In a modern evaluation of this "flesh" and "blood" conducted by several Italian university professors in 1970 under rigorous conditions, they found the following:

the container that held the "flesh" was not hermetically sealed so that the Eucharistic host at the center of the "flesh" was no longer present. Further, the "blood" globules had hardened and no unusual weight differences were noted.

samples were taken of both the "flesh" and the "blood" and were sent to a number of laboratories for microscopic, biochemical and other scientific evaluation.

the "flesh" was found to be striated muscular tissue of the myocardium (the wall of the heart), of human origin and contained absolutely no trace of any substances that could have been used to preserve it. It was Flesh indeed!

the "blood" sample was found to be human blood, type AB. The flesh was found to be of the same type as well.It was truly Blood!

the proteins found in the blood sample were consistent with proteins found in fresh human blood.

Despite the fact that the container housing the flesh and blood from the Eucharist was not hermetically sealed, the samples were not at all damaged and could have been taken from a fresh cadaver. Thus, for more than 1200 years the physical reality of Jesus real presence in the Eucharist has been preserved for all to observe and renew their faith.

There are more than two dozen documented reports of similar Eucharistic miracles occurring throughout Europe between the 10th and 15th centuries and dozens more since then with many of them having enclosed the flesh and blood samples in special containers where they can still be seen today.

Christ comes to us through the Eucharist.

Jesus' life began in Beth-Lechem...the House of Bread (Matthew 2:1). His first public miracle was at a wedding party in Cana (John 2:2-5), where He turned water into wine in response to a request by His mother. With the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves (Matthew 14:14-20), as Jesus blessed the loaves of bread and distributed them, He prefigured the superabundance of the unique bread that was to be His Eucharist. After teaching and healing the sick and working other wonders in the hills of the Galilee, Jesus had developed a wide following with many disciples. It was at the synagogue of Capernaum, at the time of the feast of Passover, that Jesus began to unfold the nature of His Eucharist to those who were following Him:

"Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you; for on Him has God the Father set His seal."

John 6:27

When His followers asked about the nature of this eternal food, Jesus replied:

"I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst."

John 6:35

When they heard this remark, some of His followers began to murmur among themselves since they knew He was just a carpenter, the son of Joseph. How could this man be the bread of life? Yet Jesus persisted as He explained Himself to them:

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."

John 6:51

This comment brought outright consternation to a number of those who had followed Him. He was actually telling them that they had to eat His flesh, an unthinkable act. If His words were confusing or misleading them in any way, then He would have corrected their misunderstanding...but He didn't. Instead, He emphasized yet again His meaning when He said:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him."

John 6:53-56

Many of those who heard Jesus say this couldn't accept it despite the fact that He explained and further clarified His statements three times in attempting to address their lack of understanding and their unwillingness to accept His words. He tried again a fourth time to help them comprehend what He was saying:

"It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life."

John 6:63

After saying this, many of those who had been following Him chose to stay away. He tried four times to teach them and in the end only a few accepted His teachings. Why didn't they comprehend Jesus, as many still don't comprehend Him after 2,000 years? Probably because they didn't understand that Jesus was the completion of the Passover begun in Egypt over a thousand years earlier. He was the New Covenant, the Promised One - the Messiah - but He didn't fit into the contemporary concept of what the Messiah should be. Passover was commemorated by a meal - a sharing of unleavened bread, lamb and wine - and Jesus had come to give them Himself as the ultimate Bread and Lamb, a meal to be consumed by all who wished to escape from the angel of Death.

During the ritual of the Passover meal, there were four different cups of blessing consumed along with unleavened bread and lamb. The lamb was chosen after it was slain without breaking any of its bones and then cooked and eaten to renew the bond of communion between God and His chosen people. The blood of this lamb, spread across the lintel of each household, was placed there as a sign to the angel of Death to pass over the house so marked and protect each of the first-born who were members of the household. Jesus came to complete the Passover so that all could pass over from death into eternal life. And just as the Jews at the time of Moses had to eat the unleavened bread and the sacrificial lamb to renew their communion with God, so all were being asked to eat the body and drink the blood of God's new lamb (Jesus) to renew their communion with Him and be marked with the sign of eternal life.

Jesus instituted His Eucharist at the Passover meal that was to mark His passing through death into Resurrection and everlasting life. It was in these words that Jesus inaugurated His Eucharist:

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." And He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."

Matthew 26:26-28

Clearly Jesus said that He was giving His followers His body and blood. It wasn't meant as a symbol as many of His followers at Capernaum would have liked to believe - it was totally Him. But did His disciples really believe that it was Jesus' body and blood? Saint Paul clearly states the beliefs of Jesus' first disciples:

"Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgement upon himself."

1 Corinthians 11:27-29

Saint Paul was not the only early follower of Jesus who wrote of this belief and practice. Dozens wrote about it in the first few hundred years of the Church's existence. This belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist continues to this day in Catholic worship and mainstream theology. Catholic understanding of Jesus' presence in the Eucharist is different than most other Christian denominations which tend to see the eucharistic meal as a symbolic rememberance rather than a real and substantial transformation.

During His lifetime, Jesus performed many miracles - he healed the sick, restored strength to the lame, raised the dead. Did the Son of God ever reverse any ot those miracles? Then He would not reverse His gift to us in the Eucharist. Once consecrated; always consecrated.

The devil is a Donatist. Go figure.

The Devil's not a Donatist. It's more like going to a football game and paying more the the 50 yard line seats.

The Donatists believed that the validity of the Sacrament depended on the sinless/sinful nature of the priest, which isn't true. Jesus works through the priest as long as right matter, form and intent are observed.

However, in my experience, a very holy priest confects a very powerful Sacrament. Satan knows this too. If I know a priest to be heretical, apostate or a particularly vile sinner I stay away for the good of my soul, although this personal viewpoint opens me up to bashing here.

Football analogies are lost on me. Sorry.

The comments by the Satanists are Donatist in nature. They are saying certain consecrations are more valuable than others. Why? IMO, a consecration by a holy priest is extremely powerful.

Football analogies are lost on me. Sorry.

It’s like going to a Laker basketball game. You have to pay more for a court side seat like Jack Nicholson has.

The comments by the Satanists are Donatist in nature. They are saying certain consecrations are more valuable than others

Sticking with my sports analogy. Any seat in a stadium will permit you to see the game in person. It’s just that some of the seats are more prized than others.

Why? IMO, a consecration by a holy priest is extremely powerful.

A consecration by any Priest is extremely powerful.

***However, in my experience, a very holy priest confects a very powerful Sacrament.***

In what sense is it "very powerful?" Is the power of the sacrament proportional to the sanctity of the priest?

I'm losing my hair scratchin my head tryin' yo figure out this Catholic Eucharistic mindset. Seems to me a transubstantiated Host is power-o-plenty. Now, I'm tryin' to figure where to go to get a super-sanctified one.

Help me!

So, why do think the Satanists would value certain consecrated Hosts over others?

BTW, basketball analogies aren't much better :-D

I'm not a sports type person.

Any properly consecrated Host is powerful. That is true. My point, which I seem to have difficulty expressing, may be more along the lines of personal experience. I'd have to divulge some personal info to really answer your question. Suffice to say, I don't want to in front of thousands of readers and lurkers! BUT, the Satanists know where to find Jesus, and I am intrigued by their desires to obtain certain consecrated Hosts. The devil is a liar but we can still obtain some good info from him under the right circumstances.

Wow. I am speechless. Thanks for posting this.

Is the power of the sacrament proportional to the sanctity of the priest?

NO!!!!!

So, why do think the Satanists would value certain consecrated Hosts over others?

They're greedy SOB's.

BTW, basketball analogies aren't much better :-D

Darn.

I'm not a sports type person.

Hmmmm. Ok, how about cars? You know like a Ford Pinto and a Rolls Royce will both get you back and forth to work. Well, you know what I mean :-)

Abbreviated... OMAM which fits well with OSAS!

But then the practice might be refered to as OMAMism. For some strange reason, I can't picture that flying in conservative circles.

"This comment brought outright consternation to a number of those who had followed Him. He was actually telling them that they had to eat His flesh, an unthinkable act. If His words were confusing or misleading them in any way, then He would have corrected their misunderstanding...but He didn't. Instead, He emphasized yet again His meaning when He said:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him."

NYer, if I wasn't Catholic, but came across this passage, I would no longer have my doubts. To me, this is the most powerful passage validating the true presence.

I once heard Hugh Hewitt arguing with a democrat over some policy, I don't remember which, and with every statment this person said, Hewitt responded with "What if you're wrong", "what if you're wrong". I thought that was very simple, yet a very powerful statement.

If I were a protestant, I would rather "take my chances" and BELIEVE in the true presence. What do you have to lose? NOTHING, but EVERYTHING to gain. Not even the angels can receive the Eucharist and they are more worthy to receive it then us. To reject such a gift probably makes the angels cry.

***So, why do think the Satanists would value certain consecrated Hosts over others?***

I did a search on Ebay for "consecrated Hosts" and none were found.

BTW, a search on "Catholic relics" got 13 hits. Glad I'm not a triscadecaphobic!