This is a rather weird story.
The short version. During a Mass at the University of Central Florida, a student (who is also a Senator in the student government) decided to walk out of Mass with a host.
This is, of course against the canon law of the Church and the rubrics of the Mass. A person taking communion must consume it, unless that person has specifically been trained as a Eucharistic minister, and given a ciborium to distribute the Eucharist to those too sick to receive communion. These people are permitted to leave the Mass with the Eucharist.
This jerk, of course, was not trying to do any such thing. Indeed, he decided to hold the host hostage for a few weeks in a Ziploc bag.
Catholics consider the consecrated wafer, the Eucharist, among the most sacred objects in the world and believe it becomes the 'Body of Christ' through transubstantiation.Student Government Senator Webster Cook filed the hazing charges with University of Central Florida administrators shortly after he admitted violating church rules by bringing the Eucharist home from Mass on June 29, then holding it hostage for one week in a plastic bag before returning it.
Cook said his hazing complaint cited a UCF anti-hazing policy banning the forced consumption of any food in which the initiation or admission into or affiliation with a University of Central Florida organization may be directly or indirectly conditioned.
In other words, not only did this jerk take a host from the Mass, but when Catholic students complained about it, he filed a complaint, saying that the rule that the host must be consumed at Mass violates a UCF rule designed to prevent fraternities from forcing pledges to eat food during initiation.
This is an act of profound anti-Catholic bigotry. First to compare the Catholic church to a college fraternity and the Mass to an initiation ceremony ("Your Delta Tau Kai name is . . . . Pinto") displays an incredible lack of respect for the religious beliefs of fellow students.
What is more shocking is that the student claims to be a Catholic. His complaint can be read in the PDF here.
I'll give you a few quotes from his complaint.
On Sunday, June 29, 2008 I attended a mass held by the Catholic Campus Ministry in the Cape Florida Ballroom at the UCF Student Union. I attended the meeting with my non-Catholic friend, Benjamin Collard, in order to teach him about our religion. Approximately forty-five minutes into the meeting, the organization began the communion ceremony, during which crackers and wine were distributed to the people in attendance.I proceeded to the altar and received a cracker along with everyone else. I did not immediately
eat the cracker because I wanted to show it to my friend Benjamin first. However, as I walked
towards the woman with the wine, a member of the group grabbed my arm from behind. While I
was being held from behind, another member of the group stepped in front of me, blocking my
path. This group member said, “You need to eat it!” I was intimidated and embarrassed because
I was in the front of room of almost 200 people. Although I did not want to eat the cracker, I put
it in my mouth because I was physically and mentally forced to do so.
Let's assume for the moment that the student, Webster Cook, was not acting in bad faith. Let's assume that a) he is indeed a Catholic, and b) he did, indeed, want to take a host in order to instruct a friend.
Says something about church catechesis these days, doesn't it? A young man, presumably bright enough to attend College, and a lifelong Catholic, refers to the host as "the cracker." Not "the Body of Our Lord, Jesus Christ", not "The Eucharist," not "The Host", but "the cracker."
Did he receive any instruction before his first Communion? Did he receive any preparation for his confirmation? Did he even listen during catechism? A Catholic does not refer to the host as "a cracker". If he is a Catholic, he is, indeed, a very poor one.
By which I mean, if you hauled the average European peasant out of their village church in 1300 A.D., a person who believed the Earth was flat and could neither read nor write, and asked him what the host was, he could give a better explanation than this modern day UCF student. He would regard the actions of Mr. Cook as being both profoundly ignorant and profoundly blasphemous.
Because they are.
Upon returning to my seat, I removed the cracker from my mouth and held it in my hand. At this point, another member of the group, Michelle Ducker, put her hand on my shoulder and told me “Eat the cracker or I’m going to make a huge scene”. Almost instantly, she grabbed my wrist and began and scratching my fingers. While not exercising any physical force in return, I asked her to “Stop touching me”. Despite my clear protest, she continued to hold my hands, wrists, and arms. She also touched my shorts in order to feel inside my pockets. I had to loudly ask her this three times before she stopped.Although neither of us used or indicated that we would use physical force, a large man was sent
to remove us from the room. When he asked us to leave, we promptly complied to avoid a
conflict. In the hallway, I told him that I was insulted by their use of force. He informed me that
their actions were in accordance with the policies of the Catholic Church.I regularly attended a Catholic Church and Catechism throughout my entire childhood. In all
that time, I never learned that failing to immediately consume my cracker during communion
would oblige my fellow laymen to use physical force against me. This incident was especially
perturbing because I have previously observed members of my church do this without provoking
this apparently default repercussion.
All I can say is that I am thankful I was not there. I doubt I could have restrained myself from physical violence, and not merely scratching poor Webster's finger or asking him to leave. I would have removed the host from Webster's unconscious body and returned it to the priest, having, through the sin of anger and through repeatedly punching Webster in the head, removed myself from the necessary state of grace to consume the host myself.
He frankly deserved an ass-kicking. A righteous ass-kicking. But an ass-kicking nonetheless.
Webster makes a few other charges in his self-serving statement.
Use, possession, sale and/or distribution of alcoholic beverages except as expressly permitted by the law and University rules, and behavior under the influence of alcoholic beverages.During the Catholic Campus Ministry’s communion ceremony, wine was offered to an
entire group of students, the majority of whom are under twenty-one years of age. The
wine was also given to a number of obvious minors. Serving alcohol to anyone under
twenty-one years of age is against the law. Unless there is a provision in federal, state,
or local law excluding religious organizations, their actions constitute a violation of this
rule.
Webster Cook, lifelong Catholic, is shocked, shocked! to find that communion wine is served during Mass. Well no kidding. Maybe while you were playing with your gameboy during Catechism, Webster, you may have missed the fact that Christ's sacrifice on the cross was not bloodless. The wine commemorates this, and, by virtue of transubstantiation, becomes this blood. And even Prohibition itself did not prevent communion wine from being manufactured and sold in the United States, and yes, religious services where a tiny amount of wine is dispensed have never been held to violate local, state, or federal law, you ignorant, pompous *sshole.
I do not believe Webster is a Catholic. I believe he is simply trying to persuade his University that Catholicism needs to be banned on his campus.
Of course, given the state of the academy in America, I think the odds of this are probably close to 50-50.
For example, Webster has the support of at least one academic:
Since Channel 9 broke the story it's grabbed national headlines. Paul Zachary Myers, an athiest college professor at the University of Minnesota Morris who saw the story, has since pledged to desecrate the Eucharist and post photographic evidence on the Internet in protest of Cook's treatment. The pledge attracted condemnation from the Catholic League, a Catholic civil rights group whose leader, Bill Donohue, suggested that UCF President John Hitt should expel Cook from school even after he returned the Eucharist.
Now in this case, I do not believe that Cook should be expelled from school. I think he needs to apologize. That is how we deal with things in a civilized society. As for Professor Myers, I think if he did any such thing, he should lose his job. It is one thing to be an incredibly ignorant college student.
I've been one myself.
It is another to perpetrate a hate crime asa representative of an institution. And make no mistake about it, the desecration of the Eucharist is, indeed, a hate crime. Professor Myers would not tolerate mockery of a Buddhist ceremony on his campus, but academics do not accord Christians the same privileges as other citizens. At some level, this angers me. At another, I merely say, "Go ahead and drive us from society. We survived the catacombs and the tyranny of Nero. We'll outlive you, too."
UPDATE: He's been impeached by the UCF Student Senate.