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ST. CLOUD, Fla. (WJW) — A Florida priest has been charged after investigators said he bit a woman during an altercation over Communion last weekend.
On Sunday afternoon, the woman and a witness came to the St. Cloud Police Department to report an incident that happened at Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church earlier that day, according to the charging affidavit.
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The woman told police that she was attending Mass at the church and tried to take part in Communion for her niece.
She said the priest leading Communion, Father Fidel Rodriguez, refused to give her bread, saying she didn’t take the necessary steps to participate, according to the affidavit.
The woman accused Rodriguez of getting upset and trying to “ram the ‘cookie’ in her mouth,” the affidavit said.
She told police she tried to grab another piece of bread from the tray when Rodriguez bit her arm, according to the affidavit.
During an interview with police, Rodriguez said the woman attended an earlier Mass and was told what she needed to do to receive Communion. According to the report, when she came back later and was refused Communion, Rodriguez said she got upset and attacked him.
He told police that the woman grabbed onto the Communion tray, which is sacrilegious in the Catholic faith, so in an attempt to protect what Catholics consider the body of Christ, “the only way he thought to extract her from it was to bite her arm,” the affidavit said.
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The affidavit says Rodriguez faces one count of battery. St. Cloud police officials said no arrests have been made in the case, which was handed over to the state attorney’s office for review.
The Diocese of Orlando released the following statement to FOX 8 News:
On Sunday, May 19, at the 10 a.m. Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in St. Cloud, a woman came through Father Fidel Rodriguez’s Holy Communion line and appeared unaware of the proper procedure. After a brief exchange with the woman, it was determined that she was neither prepared nor disposed to participate in Communion. Father Rodriguez gave the woman a blessing and advised her to receive the Sacrament of Penance (Confession) before coming back to receive Holy Communion (Eucharist).
The same woman arrived at 12 p.m. Mass on Sunday and stood in Father Rodriguez’s Communion line. Father Rodriguez asked if she had been to the Sacrament of Penance (Confession), to which she stated it was not his business. At that time, Father Rodriguez offered the woman Holy Communion on the tongue. At that point, the woman forcefully placed her hand in the vessel and grabbed some sacred Communion hosts, crushing them. 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.
It should be noted Father Rodriguez had no prior knowledge of the woman’s background. Further, while the Diocese of Orlando does not condone physical altercations such as this, 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.
The full video and the police report show the woman initiated physical contact and acted inappropriately. The priest was trying to protect the Holy Communion from this sacrilegious act.
In the Catholic Tradition, the Eucharist is considered “the source and summit” of worship and faith. The act of participation in Holy Communion therefore calls for a proper understanding, reverence, and devotion. It is not something a person can arbitrarily demand and is certainly not a mere “cookie” as the complainant called it.
The Diocese of Orlando believes all people of all faiths should be respected and that their religious ceremonies or services should never be disrupted.
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