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

[NCOak]

oh noez he put jeebus in his pocket

[ZenCrusader]

you should learn what and who to respect in life - you would be a wiser person than to post things like that. You're lucky Catholics are more tolerant than Muslims of those who insult what they deem sacred.

[PDXTransplant]

I hear they're tolerant of mo|estings too. I hear they like to brush those things under the pew and not talk about it. Shhhh!

[Cycadeoidea]

I presume he wasn't saving it for later. Those wafers are usually kind of stale to begin with.

[lexnekst]

nEWSFLASH: There is no God. Proff? Go outside and ask for him to show himself. Done.

So who cares about this antiquated religion, the saem one that tells people not to use condoms- but then doesnt want to deal with the problems of overpopulation amongst the poor.

Fucc the Catholic Church, and their invisible made up santa claus of a god.

[dwillisno1]

Thanks, you have just proven that you don't have to be religious to be as intolerant as some religious people are.

[Jeff7772]

Catholic Christians believe that the "cracker," as some obviously anti-Catholic posters are referring to it, is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. It only appears to be bread, or a wafer, to our material eyes after the consecration. That is why it is a big deal.

[larry278]

Whatever, it used to be made of mazzo flour. It looks like a round, emaciated, mazzo. If PM Harper sells it to somebody who plans to make videos to offend RC's to create a scandal, he can make some real money. When RC's find out the sale, there will be a bidding war. The bids will start at US$500,000­.00. It would be higher but the Vatican is broke & we are in the mother of all depressions.

[Jeffersonian1]

Maybe he just wasn't hungry.

[punk]

Maybe he's reading the Evil Bible... http://www.EvilBible.com

[TripleBypass]

What a joke! Who really cares on such trivial matters when the world is in such flux? Those thin biscuits don't even taste good. Ridiculous is all I have to say!

[terramartom]

If anybody thinks that a waffer is the blood of anything, this planet is in deep trouble!

[Cycadeoidea]

The wafer is the body. The wine is the blood. ;-)

[larry278]

Yeah, whatever. The biscuit looks like an emaciated, round, mazzo. The so called sacremental wine can be compaired to evidence of what used to be called a crime against. There's a rumor that Masons & Wiccans will keep out any controversies between PM Harper & the RCs.

[Poiks]

No offense to our friends to the North, but Canadians are often fond of mocking the US for what we consider "news." Is this really NEWS in Canada?

[JuliaRain]

No.

[Arnet]

Pocketing a wafer isn't that big of a deal, but when his spokesperson lies, as usual it is.

""It's totally absurd," the prime minister's press secretary, Dimitri Soudas, said. "The priest offered the host to the prime minister, the prime minister accepted the host and he consumed it. The story today alleges he put it in his pocket and did not consume it which is false. It's totally absurd and ridiculous­."

[DeeW]

no - but we get to mock Harper for a few minutes.

[stanschurman]

No, it was the result of some priest in New Brunswick with nothing better to do trying to make an issue of it.....sor­t of a Catholic Al Sharpton.

[terramartom]

Religion, all of them are simply cults, and no more than a hoax, played out by eglomaniacs for power and wealth.
What does this man the Pope living in a castle, eating off gold plates have to do with a tolerant, poor, inclusive Jewish Rabbi Philosopher 2,000 years ago have in common?
Nothing!

[sloe]

wow... such a rant you make.... at least we won't have see or hear it in the after life!

[ZenCrusader]

This nuanced intellectual superiority over the religious that atheists express is sophomoric at best and is becoming tired. That you disclaim the invisible because you cannot see it for yourself is absurd. One wonders why those who are not evolved enough to sense the presence of their creator seem proud of it, a not uncommon trait of the ignorant and heathens.

[larry278]

Whatever, uncaused 1st cause & all of that. Has it been determined how many angels can dance of the tip of a small needle, fit through the eye of a needle, on the head of a pin? There was some sort of a controversy among RC's before Luther & others reformed the Christian church. I remain a happy heathen, serene sceptic, etc.
BTW, ZenCrusader, how are the current crusades in Iraq & Afghanistan going? The news of these military operations is not good. It has something to do with the Muslim residents of these places.

[punk]

Good for him. It's time we all take lessons from the Evil Bible. Check it out... http://www.EvilBible.com

[lauram]

Oh noes. It's crackergate all over again: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/07/its_a_goddamned_cracker.php

[bootman69]

LMAO I was an altar boy in the catholic church for 8 years as a teen. We used to scarf down the unused hosts after mass and helped the priest down the leftover awful wine too. The nuns used to tell us in catechism that if you didn't eat the host right away or were sinful enough to not even swallow it that it would bleed the blood of christ all over your pocket and you would go to hell. I'm 56 now and I doubt this is the transgression that would deliver me to the prince of darkness, even if I was still ignorant enough to believe the myths. I am sure Harper will receive the obligatory christian revenge, the pious outrage and if he's lucky enough excommunication. Now that would be a happy ending.

[stanschurman]

I can't stand the man, but really, I can't tell from the video if he put it inhis pocket or not. If he did, so what?

[monstermash9]

It's a freaking cracker. Who is stupid enough to worship a tasteless cracker?

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/07/the_great_desecration.php

[mapleaforever]

Regardless of this "incident", Harper is our W.