UPDATED: Stephen Harper Puts Communion Wafer In His Pocket, Causes Uproar (VIDEO)

UPDATED: Stephen Harper Puts Communion Wafer In His Pocket, Causes Uproar (VIDEO)

UPDATED: Speaker of the Senate of Canada Noel A. Kinsella, issued the following statement: "I would like to state that I personally witnessed Prime Minister Harper consume the host that was given to him by Archbishop Andre Richard. Sitting only a few seats behind him I had a full view of the proceedings and clearly saw the Prime Minister accept the host after Archbishop Richard offered it. The Prime Minister consumed it."

Earlier...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper angered Catholics by apparently pocketing a communion wafer at a funeral mass in Canada on Friday. Wafergate began with a news feed of the event that shows Harper accepting the host, as it is called by Catholics, and then moving his hand conspicuously away from his mouth, the wafer's intended target. An article in the Telegraph Journal reported on Harper's seeming befuddlement:

When Harper took the host, "everybody just paused and said, 'What did he do with it?'"‚" said one official who watched the pool feed with reporters who were not inside St. Thomas Church in Memramcook.

"You could see he was, 'Uh oh, I don't know what to do with this.'","

Monsignor Brian Henneberry, a vicar general and chancellor, was alerted to the incident by a concerned viewer.

Henneberry said he has received a call on Harper's actions from a concerned Catholic, and he doubts that she is the only one puzzled and perturbed.

"She said she was very upset," he said, adding he had not seen the footage.

"She said, 'All weekend long it has been bothering me and I know I can't do something about it, but someone should.'

"She can't be the only one in this country that is thinking that."

Watch the potentially incriminating video:

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