WTF! A priest just admitted to BITING a churchgoer over an argument about communion!
Last Sunday, the unnamed victim attended a 10 a.m. church service at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in St. Cloud, Florida. But when she went to get communion, she claims she was denied — only for her to try again hours later and allegedly become the victim of a physical assault!! In police body camera footage, the woman can be heard explaining:
“I just got assaulted by a father, by a priest. At church, he bit me, over a cookie.”
Yikes!!
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While she didn’t know for sure, the woman believed she was being treated differently because of her appearance, adding:
“I don’t know if it’s because of how I’m dressed, what it is that I [look] like.”
She was wearing pants and a button-down shirt. But when officers wondered if she was refused communion “because of sexual orientation,” she urged, “I think I was.” Whoa!! Another woman who was with her received communion first with no problem, noting that she was dressed “feminine-wise.”
According to the victim, when she stepped up for communion, Father Fidel Rodriguez told her she “needed to do confession, go to mass every Sunday” before she could have any. She recalled:
“I said it doesn’t matter, I did everything I needed to do as a kid, I want the bread. He wouldn’t give it to me.”
She then returned to the noon mass to try again but was questioned about her confession and when she last attended a service. She told him:
“It doesn’t matter, I’m here just to accept the bread.”
He then allegedly “tucked” the wafer into her mouth — seemingly without her permission. She shared:
“I was like, ‘No, you’re not gonna do that.’ He’s like, ‘You want the bread, right?’ I’m like, ‘Not this way.'”
In response, she grabbed “another cookie” from the tray, and the priest then “literally grabbed my hand and he just bit me.” WTF?!
Oh, and guess what?! ALL of this was captured on a livestream of the service!! See (below):
When officers spoke to Rodriguez, he claimed the woman didn’t know the proper way to accept communion. He said that he blessed her and told her to come back after going to confession, which made her “upset.” At the noon mass, he confirmed that he asked whether she’d confessed, but that she had argued that she didn’t have anything to explain to him. After he placed the wafer in her mouth, he alleged that she “pushed me,” then “grabbed” a handful of “sacred” wafers and broke them. He even admitted to biting her in his discussion with cops:
“She said, ‘I don’t care, I am receiving Communion.’ I recognize that I [bit] her, I’m not denying that.”
Whoa!!
While he didn’t deny it, the priest urged that he was merely defending himself and “the sacrament.” When asked if he refused the woman because she is lesbian, he hit back with:
“I don’t know her. She’s a lesbian? I don’t know. I’m not judging by appearance.”
Hmmm… If he wasn’t judging her, why did he think this stranger needed to confess before getting communion?? While that’s what the Catholic Church teaches, people go to new churches all the time and aren’t required to jump through any hoops to get communion or prove they are worthy of it. Seems like he was judging her — for one reason or another…
Unfortunately for the victim, it doesn’t seem like he’ll be facing any consequences for his actions. He was not arrested or charged with a crime and the Diocese of Orlando is taking his side. In a statement, they wrote that the Father “determined [the woman] was neither prepared nor disposed to participate in Communion. At the second mass, she “forcefully placed her hand in the vessel and grabbed some sacred Communion hosts, crushing them.” They stated:
“Having only one hand free, Father Rodriguez struggled to restrain the woman as she refused to let go of the hosts. When the woman pushed him and reacting to a perceived act of aggression, Father Rodriguez bit her hand so she would let go of the hosts she grabbed. The woman was immediately asked to leave.”
They confirmed that the pastor had “no prior knowledge of the woman’s background” and noted that they don’t condone physical violence. But they added:
“In good faith, Father Rodriguez was simply attempting to prevent an act of desecration of the Holy Communion, which, as a priest, Father Rodriguez is bound by duty to protect.”
Stressing that communion is “not something a person can arbitrarily demand and is certainly not a mere ‘cookie’ as the complainant called it,” they concluded:
“The priest was trying to protect the Holy Communion from this sacrilegious act.”
Huh?! Nobody can assault someone “in good faith.” BFFR!! No matter who started this dispute, the priest should know — at the very least — how to handle conflict resolution without resorting to childish violence. Reactions?! Sound OFF (below)!
[Image via Movieclips/ABC/YouTube]
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