Posted on 07/08/2008 7:02:41 AM PDT by NYer
Orange County, FL -- One week after a University of Central Florida student snatched something sacred from church, armed UCF police officers stood guard during Sunday Mass to protect what Catholics call "The Body of Christ."
Minutes before the Mass began, Student Senator Webster Cook returned the Holy Eucharist he was holding hostage in a Ziploc bag ever since smuggling the blessed wafer of bread out of the Catholic Mass service Sunday June 29.
Carol Brinati with the Diocese of Orlando said the Catholic community was "concerned about the possible desecration of the Eucharist," and pleaded for its safe return.
Cook, who was raised Catholic, said he decided to bring the Eucharist home after a church leader tried to physically pry it from his hand. Cook broke Church rules by failing to consume it immediately during communion and then removing it from his mouth once seated.
Cook said he just wanted to show the Eucharist to a friend he brought with questions about Catholicism before consuming it. But outraged Catholics across the globe didn’t believe him and suspected he intended all along to steal the Eucharist and bloggers sent out e-mail messages damning him to Hell.
"I am returning the Eucharist to you in response to the e-mails I have received from Catholics in the UCF community," Cook wrote in a letter to the church. "I still want the community to understand that the use physical force is wrong, especially when based on assumptions. However, I feel it is unnecessary to cause pain for those who are not at fault in this situation."
Cook said some threatened to break into his dorm room to rescue the Eucharist. Brinati said the Diocese of Orlando didn't condone those threats, but was happy Cook had a change of heart and returned it.
"We've been praying about that," she said.
It's still not clear if the controversy is over. There is no word yet if either the Catholic students or Cook will drop their separate complaints filed against each other with UCF's student court. The violations each side accused the other of could result in suspension or expulsion. Cook still disagrees with the more than $40,000 in student funds distributed annually to support Catholic and other religious groups on campus, but seemed conciliatory in his letter.
"I want to thank the individuals who explained the emotional and spiritual pain my possession of the Eucharist caused them to experience," he wrote. "They have demonstrated that the use [of] reason is more effective than the use of force."
Cook said he still hopes to meet with the local Bishop to discuss prohibiting the use of force to recover the Eucharist. He also wants an apology.
Yes, a priesthood composed of all believers. Praise God!
I'd say it's yet another example of Roman Catholics trying to make everybody else play by their rules. ;-)
Anyway...dodge criticism by invoking a made-up "law"...dodge criticism by automatically labeling it "hate" or "bigotry"...same difference, I'd say.
IN ANY CASE...
Set aside the issue of whether the bread really becomes the body of Christ for the moment. If one believes that God does, at some point, cause the wafer to take on the character of Christ’s real body...
...then He can certainly cause it to resume the character of ordinary bread if He desires as well.
All this outrage gives the punk in the story exactly what he wanted. The Roman Catholic Church should laugh at his ridiculous stunt.
[BUZZZ!]False answer!
Pre or post Pentecost....the apocryphal books were never part of the Hebrew scripture.
We're not talking about non-Messianic, Jewish opinion on NT. That is obvious. We're talking about catholic modification of the OT in spite of it being a Jewish compilation.
Funny how the catholics can criticize Luther for modifying the their canon, but feel fine about modifying the Jewish OT. Pretty hypocritical.
I don’t have time to read the whole thread, but I have emailed Fox to let them know how terribly wrong their article is about Catholic doctrine. Has any body else let them know the Eucharist isn’t a “religious icon” or “symbolic” of Christ, etc etc.
Not interested.
Excellent.
Because you say so?
the apocryphal books were never part of the Hebrew scripture.
Yes, they were, up until Jamnia. They were part of the Septuagint. It was not until Jamnia that the Jews had a "canon" to speak of. Until then, they used the books that were in the Septuagint, including those erroneously called 'apocryphal.'
We're not talking about non-Messianic, Jewish opinion on NT. That is obvious.
It is inconsistent to use the opinions of the Jews to judge the OT without using it to judge the NT. After the beginning of the Christian era, I don't much care about non-Messianic, Jewish opinion on the OT either.
We're talking about catholic modification of the OT in spite of it being a Jewish compilation.
No, we're not. See above.
Would you be so kind as to show me where in Scripture this is written. Thank you.
"Decent human beings somehow find a way to respect other people's beliefs without endorsing their religion."
It's something I notice and appreciate.
Ho, buddy! We do that day and night on the Tireless Freekin Squeekin Freepin Religion Forum. Nothing wrong with pointing out error.
The real savoir faire comes into play when you can do so without taking somebody else's sacred object under false pretenses (pretending to be a believer and a communicant), causing anguish and disgust amongst those with whom you are supposedly trying to communicate.
The student in question acted like a jerk, and ought to be overwhelmingly grateful if he gets off without criminal charges.
Point of information: do you believe the pictorial depiction of Jesus Christ is improper? Or pointless? Or possibly offensive? Please correct me if I am reading too much into this.
Ok, but how is pocketing a wafer "disobeying God?" Its like when Jesus chided the Pharisees for tithing on dill, mint and cumin, but ignoring the weightier ordinances. The RCC gets in a tizzy about a college kid putting a wafer in a ziploc bag; but there are other much more important issues to address.. like how the church will pay the billions in settlements to catholic kids that have been molested by priests.
I would clean it up, bleach the table, and go ahead and serve the Lord's supper. I wouldn't consider it to be "desecrated." It is a thing.
There are things about the RCC that I like and things about it that I dislike. But I do not view it as some infallible institution like some in here do. Such a view is untenable.
That's not quite true. He obtained the host on the basis of falsehood, inasmich as he pretended to be a believer and a communicant, for the priest or EM wouldn't have given him the host otherwise.
An analogy might be a funeral of a soldier in which the mourners are given some token (a small American flag, a photograph of the soldier, or a flower) at the gravesite by the soldier's family. If a pretended mourner came and were given these objects, and then proceeded to burn them, smear with filth, or otherwise dishonor them--- saying that he was given the tokens, and the soldier's family had thereby relinquished control--- he should not expect to be held harmless.
Oh great, personal attacks... way to go.
I have a different understanding of the Lord's Supper than what the RCC teaches. He was leading his disciples in the passover supper. He was not saying that the bread was literally HIM. He was saying that the passover supper they had been eating for 1500 or so years was about HIM. It was a difficult statement to accept because he was exploding their limited understanding.
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