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.
To give an extreme example what if someone was to leave a pile of steaming dog poop on your communion table or on the pulpit? Too bad you don’t have any sense of the sacred. I think Luther and Calvin would be shocked.
Look, you clearly don't like the Roman Catholic Church. Fine. This thread is about the actions of a student at UCF who, not unlike like you, seems to dislike the Roman Catholic Church.
Oh genius we worship the Triune God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To say otherwise is a lie. But I forget that is what many of you do best. Spread lies and infamy about Catholics. You should be ashamed of yourself.
That is not the Catholic position. Read up about transubstantiation.
But I am of the opinion that God is fully capable of protecting His own interests. If you can ignore or live with, say "Piss Christ" and other obscenities, then this, too, should be livable with.
However, as I said, I am not a Catholic, and to me, it is just a piece of bread that, when used in what we Baptists call 'the Lord's Supper', and others call the "Eucharist', symbolizes the body of Christ. So perhaps I see it differently from you.
In any event, I wouldn't give the twerp the satisfaction
I'm sure you're very familiar with Scripture -- familiar enough to realize that when Christ was speaking figuratively He made that very clear. When the disciples or Pharisees asked Him for an explanation of a parable (like the door of the sheepfold, or the sower who went forth to sow), He gave it to them, and explained to them what He meant. John even adds that they didn't understand what he was saying until he explained further.
But in John 6, when His disciples said, "This is a hard saying -- who can hear it?" He didn't say, "No, you misunderstood. Here is the explanation." Instead, He reiterated three times that His flesh is food indeed, and His blood is drink indeed, and that if you do not eat His flesh and drink His blood, "there is no life in you." And to believing Jews that was a horrific, fundamental heresy that they could not accept.
And when many of His disciples walked away and followed Him no more because they could not accept His teaching, He did not correct them. He let them go. Why would God let His followers walk away because of a mere misunderstanding of a figure of speech?
A number of these folks who try to steal the Body of Christ are carrying it away to use in sacrilegous ceremonies or witchcraft.
No kidding. Not only the satanists but voodoo and santeria practitioners will try to steal the Host. A lot of churches have burly ushers and plainclothes KCs on patrol for just this reason.
This student may just be a nut who hates the Catholic Church and doesn't want college funding of religious groups . . . or he may have had more sinister intentions from which he is now trying to divert interest.
Look, Jesus has bodyguards now!!
Oddly, these guys are allowed to carry weapons. So I guess if someone else gets a hankering to kidnap our Lord and Savior, we'll be ready to shoot him full of lead.
Hopefully, they won't accidentally hit Jesus in the hail of bullets. That has to be a no-no.
It’s ok, the other thread doesn’t really count because it’s a caucus thread, and therefore closed to everybody except Catholics.
This can be the thread for the rest of us to comment.
IN the historical sense of the word, there are parts of that history that make me glad not to be "that kind" of "christian".
IN case anybody gets the wrong idea, I don’t think the kid should be taking the host, and he should be disciplined for doing so.
Sacred is what people define, and churches should be allowed their practice within their own ranks without fear of attack like this.
We certainly don’t want people commiting acts against our churches.
I just thought it was funny that Jesus had armed guards now, given that he rejected them back when it seems much more likely he would need them.
Jesus had legions of angels to do his bidding, if he so desired.
Now, I hadn’t thought of that.
When I worked for the U.S. District Court down here back in the 80s, the court had a janitorial employee whose job was to clean all the beheaded black roosters and so forth off the courthouse steps on Monday morning.
It's only gotten worse. There's a voodoo shop operating openly here, 3 blocks from the Catholic Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Catholicism and Voodoo/santeria/candombe go together in the minds of the practicioners. These are syncretic faiths that combine Catholicism with African rituals.
I’m surprised and disappointed by the number of FR bloggers who seem to take such glee at bashing Catholics, even though some may camouflage the bashing in terms of “innocent” questions (Chesley), outright contempt (CharlesWayneCT), and trick questions (Guyin40s). They all represent the same contemptible attitude, however. I wouldn’t have thought people posing as conservative would stoop so low. I’m not even sure it’s worth the time to address them directly, since they clearly want only an opportunity to score a cheap 15 or so seconds of fame, like the dirtbag who stole the Eucharist. And let’s be frank: He didn’t do it because someone chased him. He’s a liar.
I hope I’m not the only Catholic who believes there is a growing sentiment that there are plenty of us who will not turn the other cheek. I draw for inspiration the example of Islam it its willingness to exact a price for public contempt of my religion, and Meir Kahane and the Jewish Defense League, and their willingness to strike back and strike often. Creeps like the three I mentioned nominate themselves as natural targets of payback for their blatant and public stoning of Catholics for entertainment. I’m not advocating bombs or beheadings. I do advocate fighting, and don’t draw the line at mere words.
And to pre-empt their expected judgment of a Catholic who believes in not turning the other cheek, as the Bible recommends, the state of my soul is between me and my Saviour. They don’t get a vote.
They ignore or REJECT that the ONE-TIME perfect sacrifice of Christ was enough. They need to keep doing it. Pity. BTW, that is also the reason why they need to keep bowing and kneeling...to pay honor to a wafer. Your right. It is idolatry. Very much so.
The Lord is OMNIPRESENT. Like fog. He is everywhere all the time. Why catholics reject this is amazing....they need to confine Christ to a wafer....only because He stated at one point in the last supper, “...this is My body. Do this in remembrance of me”. Never mind that at the last supper they actually ate bread...or that Christ did not tear off chunks of His flesh during the meal. Never mind that the Lord tore the temple veil in two to symbolize the removal of priest between God and man. No...in order for some men to capitalize on the political power that religion represents to people of weak faith a priesthood was re-established some where hundreds of years after Christ's death. All of a sudden priests were needed again to ‘perform’ this miracle of bread ‘conversion’ so people could make sacrifices again. Pretty convenient for someone wanting an elevated political post in the name of religion and control of the peasants.
Catholism is ALL about man's politics and very little about Christ. Truths are ignored, flesh is blurred together with things of the spirit, scripture is twisted, and men are enriched with worldly gains.
Shame on catholics for believing this rubbish...but more shame on their leaders for leading the masses away from Christ and becoming stumbling blocks for the people.
Those that critic should be silenced you say. Just as the Pharisees silenced Christ and His followers after His death. Thank the Lord I am a recovering catholic of some 35 years.
“I draw for inspiration the example of Islam...”
ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING!!!
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