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:

Comments

[ValereP]

That happenned to me once. As a Protestant teen staying over the weekend with my Catholic friend... attended church service with her... and out of both ignorance and respect for her Catholic traditions, I attempted to just do everything she did, follow along and listen to the sermon. At communion time, I followed her up, the host was given to me but I didn't realize you were suppose to eat it right there. The priest gave me a dirty look. When asking my friend later about the dirty look, and admitting I still had this little crisp in my pocket... she was initially horrified, but then laughed it off.

[Deaninphilly]

And the fact you saw everyone around you taking the wafer and sticking it in their mouth confused you how?

[wvinvent]

So what? He did not follow the dictates of the catholic cult. So F'ing what? Just because christianity is the accepted uber-cult does not make it anything more than a cult based on a fantasy written by MEN for the purpose of subjugating their fellow humans.

[Bitsko]

Nah, he follows the dictates of his own brand of evangelical fundamentalism.

[clabberty]

He's a detriment to Canada in so many ways, however my understanding is that you don't eat the wafer if you are not Catholic and I don't think he is Catholic. Better he puts it in his pocket than he refused to take it altogether or feeds it to a passing dog. I could understand the hubbub about this if he asked the Priest for some dip and a Coke to wash it down. There's endless things to complain about Harper than this.

[HelloFunnyWorld]

"I could understand the hubbub about this if he asked the Priest for some dip and a Coke to wash it down. "

LOL.... possible clabberty, possible, but if Harper asked for some dip and a Coke to wash it down - that would do it, Canada would be gearing up for another Election, but everybody'd be so mad at him for another election so soooooooon, it would be goodbye majority dream....

LOL.... that was funny dip & coke

[Exexecution]

No, he is a flat-earth anti-abortion, law and order fundamentalist

[TheBaffler]

He wanted a snack for later. What's the big deal?

[Bitsko]

To feed his pet dinosaurs, no doubt.

[macintoshsauce]

Stephen Harper... Another reason why I left Canada.

[tomthebomb]

Just wait till that bad boy starts talking from his pocket. He better learn how to lip synch fast.

[binarystar]

He was saving it for later. He's obviously got a big weekend planned.

[Bitsko]

Lots of meetings planned with oil lobbyists and other assorted big business types.

[ecoflame]

Actually it looks like he 'pocketed' it in his hand.

[FrozenNorthObserver]

If Ol' Steve would of eaten that Jee bus biscuit his relig ious loo nie base would have come unglued. I suspect he just saw a potential photo op and jumped at the chance with no clue what was really going on. There are a helluva lot more cath olics here than there are evan gelicals so he has kinda stepped in it.

[donnieg]

The video is inconclusive. We don't know if the PM consumed the host after he moved out of the frame. What we do know is that the following setup is BS: ``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.'' Look at the video again. When is he ``moving his hand conspicuously away from his mouth''? When does he place the host in his pocket? That would be never, twice. Somebody's got too much time on their hands. (Maybe me for even commenting.)

[JustLucky]

Looked to me as if he simply found himself in an awkward situation he didn't know how to handle. He was pleasant and courteous to the priest who handed it to him, but the whole things is probably something he's never participated in before and has little knowledge about. He may even have kept it in his hand, feeling it wasn't appropriate for a non-Catholic to partake in something they weren't a part of.

[mags77]

Having been both a Christian and and Atheist at different points in my life, I can say with out any bias that both sides are big fat jerks who need to just let the other people do their thing and not be so hateful all the time.

[DingoDave]

OMG : O
It's 'Crackergate' all over again.

When a university student at UCF did much the same thing a while back, all hell broke loose, including a scuffle in the church, and threats to his personal safety afterwards.
On his science blog Pharyngula, Professor PZ Myers has some choice words to say about the kind of religious loons who take these things far too seriously.
You can read about the entire incident here:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/07/its_a_goddamned_cracker.php
Some of the comments are particularly amusing.

[Ascoli]

No matter what he does ....the man is a dork.

[thebanana]

Dork +++

[ubeman]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! He put Jesus in his pocket! God is so very pissed off right now. I hope this vile satan is burned alive for gazillion trillion billion million years!

[pons1595]

Now, you're being silly. He would get 1745 years, 3 months, 2 days and 17 hours according to Canon Law, or he could say 4 Hail Marys and 2 Our Fathers and be forgiven completely.