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.
Wait .. what? stoning? No.. I don’t advocate stoning Catholics... just wanted to clear that up :)
This contradicts the plain import of His words.
But the Deuterocanonicals were.
You know very little about Catholic teaching. Are you aware of how limited your understanding is?
False.
They need to keep doing it.
Such is His instruction.
Pity. BTW, that is also the reason why they need to keep bowing and kneeling...to pay honor to a wafer.
At that point, it is not a wafer. It is the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ.
Your right.
Whose right?
It is idolatry. Very much so.
LOL You do not know the meaning of the word.
See here's where the injunction to turn the other cheek comes into play. Rather than getting all worked up into a lather being offended that our religion is attacked by vandals, I think a church should absorb the intended insult and continue worshipping God. "Vengance is mine, I will repay, sayeth the LORD."
This is why vandals do these things, because they know there will be people who are deeply offended by them. But if people would be obedient to Christ and turn the other cheek... ie, absorb the insult without retaliation, the desire to offend becomes less intense.
You are exactly right. It is kind of like the Muslims who claim that any nation with a mosque is a "Muslim nation." And any presence of non-muslim centers of worship are therefore desecrations that need to be purged.
True.
Like fog.
What an odd way to put it.
He is everywhere all the time. Why catholics reject this is amazing....
Catholicism does not reject the omnipresence of God.
...they need to confine Christ to a wafer...
False.
...only because He stated at one point in the last supper, “...this is My body. Do this in remembrance of me”.
Yes, that is the "only" reason we do so: because Christ told us to do so.
Never mind that at the last supper they actually ate bread...
Same bread is used at Mass.
...or that Christ did not tear off chunks of His flesh during the meal...
Nor is there any "tearing off chunks of His flesh" during the Mass.
Yes, I cringe even in my own church when there are paintings depicting the Savior on the wall. Graven images, likenesses of anything in heaven, are forbidden, not because God doesn't want us to know what He looks like, but because He doesn't want us to get a false impression of who He is and what He is like.
I understand that those who have pictures of Jesus do not worship the picture. They view the picture itself as a metaphor of the Savior...something to aid them in their understanding of Him. But in my humble opinion, such images do not enhance worship, they detract from true worship.
That's not what he stole.
There is no re-sacrifice in Catholicism.
A well stated rationale for the Prottys’ fierce postings.
Thanks.
I didn't say he should be beheaded. That would be the difference.
Anyway...dodge criticism by invoking a made-up “law”...dodge criticism by automatically labeling it “hate” or “bigotry”...same difference, I’d say.
= = = =
OF COURSE!
It’s dogma 31,696
or is it ritual 40 eleven thousand 66?
Or maybe it’s just brazen magicsterical !!!!TRADITION!!!! 66,966?
I confess, I didn’t really try to keep track of all such. The accurate number is just a guess.
Again, this thread is about the actions of a student at UCF.
I am not sure why you are choosing to continue to use this as your platform to point out the many ways you disagree with the Roman Catholic Church. While I can not speak for everyone on FreeRepublic, I would venture to guess that most people here get the idea that you disagree with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church to some degree.
A real and serious question, not a Catholic bash, even though I am a Protestant:
The question is, if the man who took the wafer had destroyed it in some way, such as throwing it in a fire, crushing it, or something like that, what would happen to Christ?
If you searched for an exact match none would have been found since words with three letters or less are not searched at all.
These threads always tend to cause the Scripturally ignorant to come out of the woodwork and we see that it didn’t take long for one to show up.
Haven’t tracked down the source of the ref’d post.
IF we are talking about the typical RC crucifix Christ still on the Cross . . .
Yes, it’s offensive. He’s resurrected.
HE IS RISEN!
I think it was the 2nd Chapter of Acts that first wrote and performed Easter Song—which is rightfully Exaultant.
This link is of KEITH GREEN doing a great job on it:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3kc1jDahU4
I find Christ ON the Cross still, to be an unfitting and negative focus quite uncalled for and more than a little cheekily insulting vis a vis His Resurrection.
It would be kind of like . . . someone having stomach bypass surgery . . .
and 3 months later . . . with a body and health much improved . . . all and sundry relatives and friends who were ran into would have to first endure a showing of the scars and a relating of the step by step gory details of the operation with almost a demand that they watch the video of the operation.
The point is not the operation. The focus is not the operation. The goal and joy is the results.
I also have another quibble about Christ on The Cross.
It’s NOT HISTORICAL.
Personally I think the RC edifice has a horrific problem with historical accuracy in general.
However, in this case, if they are absolutely insistent on displaying Him on The Cross—then, by all means, display the Prince of Truth HONESTLY, ACCURATELY!
The morbid fascination and ritualization talisman-ization of the contorted loin-clothed figure on the cross is a sham in addition to being the wrong focus.
My 2 cents.
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