You know there’s a looooooong history to a story like this. But here’s the upshot as it’s being reported. A priest had a mother and her daughter ticketed by police for tresspasing after it was reported that the woman’s daughter spit out the host in the parking lot after a previous Mass.
The DestinLog reports:
Navarre resident Jackie Trebesh said she was flabbergasted and irritated when a Catholic priest denied her and her daughter Holy Communion, and then had a Santa Rosa County deputy pull her over.
She said she was so surprised by the actions of The Rev. John Kelly at St. Sylvester’s Catholic Church in Gulf Breeze she thought at first she was being “pranked.”
“He’s not God. He can’t do that to people,” she said.
Trebesh said she and her 19-year-old daughter Rachel attended a Friday morning service and were turned away when they approached the priest to take Holy Communion.
Trebesh said Kelly told them, as he denied them communion, that he would explain his actions after the mass had ended.
She said she decided not to wait around for the end of the service and had left the church parking lot when a deputy pulled her over.
Trebesh said the deputy informed her that Kelly had requested the traffic stop. She and her daughter were issued trespass warnings.
The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office and the Catholic Church confirmed much of her story, but said there were justifiable reasons for their actions.
According to Trebesh, she learned the reason she was denied communion was because someone at the church had seen the daughter dispose of the host, as it is called, improperly in the church parking lot.
The Catholic Church believes the wafer provided during Holy Communion to have been transformed during the mass to the actual body of Christ.
“The matter of disposing of the Eucharist in an inappropriate way is a serious matter to us,” Peggy Dekeyser, the communications officer for the diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee said in confirming Trebesh’s theory.
Trebesh said the only thing she could think of that Kelly or anyone else might have seen her daughter do was “spit out a piece of gum in the parking lot.”
Asked if the substance of the item Rachel Trebesh was seen disposing of had been verified, Dekeyser declined comment.
Sgt. Scott Haines with the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office verified the fact Trebesh was pulled over as she left St. Sylvester’s Church. He said the church had requested Trebesh be given a trespass warning.
“We issued the trespass warning on behalf of the church,” Haines said. “They were banned from being on the property.”
The diocese’s spokesperson said they’d be willing to speak further to the woman and her daughter concerning the issue.
You know this sadly won’t be the end of this story.
All I can think is that I wish we could have this priest transferred over to Nancy Pelosi’s parish.
January 14, 2011 at 8:53 pm
Spot on Matthew! I agree!
There are so many Eucharistic abuses. What a humiliation for our Lord to come in simple bread, without having to be regarded as chewing gum to be "spit out" at the end of Mass! This is sickening…
January 14, 2011 at 9:16 pm
I appreciate – REALLY appreciate – a priest willing to exercise the authority given to him by Christ Jesus our Lord.
January 14, 2011 at 9:44 pm
I second the appreciation.
January 14, 2011 at 10:05 pm
Third.
Rather than driving off angry, wouldn't a reasonable family just wait until mass ended for the explanation? In that case, if it truly were a misunderstanding, they would be able to work it out.
January 14, 2011 at 10:21 pm
Sounds like the Padre made all the right moves.
There is a process to retrieve a desecrated Host.
January 15, 2011 at 1:05 am
Our mission in East Texas was disrupted by a local nutter last fall, and several years ago an evil woman — she actually hissed — tried to take the Precious Body away. We must all be alert.
— Mack
January 15, 2011 at 1:25 am
This comment has been removed by the author.
January 15, 2011 at 1:57 am
"Trebesh said the only thing she could think of that Kelly or anyone else might have seen her daughter do was 'spit out a piece of gum in the parking lot.'"
So it wasn't the Eucharist, it was just a piece of gum she had been chewing during Mass?
I can't tell you how many times stuff like that happens.
January 15, 2011 at 2:00 am
Oh, and I meant that with a note of sarcasm. Chewing gum during Mass ain't much better, especially if someone receives the Eucharist while chewing gum.
January 15, 2011 at 2:32 am
This is my parish. I did not know all the details till a friend forwarded me this website. But a few months ago during his homily, Fr. Kelly told us that there had been two instances of a parishioner finding a host in the parking lot on the ground after Mass. He proceeded to give a very serious instruction on the proper way to receive Holy Communion, and also stipulated that no one was to step to the side to receive the Host. They were to consume it immediately in the direct view of himself or the EME. He instructed parents with children in their arms to receive on the tongue, and that under no circumstances were people to hold one hand out or try to take the Host from the EME's hand. He said that if he were alerted to someone attempting to leave the church without consuming the Host, he would leave the altar, follow them out and recover the Body of Christ by force if necessary.
January 15, 2011 at 3:19 am
If it's true, then the priest did the right thing.
I just don't see how it could be true. I usually don't do anything to make the host disintegrate in my mouth—I just let it sit there—and it's usually gone in less than two minutes.
I even go to Mass at a place where there are Masses every half-hour in the morning, so after communion, there's only a couple of minutes (three or four max) after I receive communion before we have to get out of there for the next Mass.
And even if I tried, it would be impossible to maintain a host in my mouth long enough for there to be anything left to spit out by the time I got outside.
Far-fetched details.
January 15, 2011 at 3:30 am
I can't see any reason why it couldn't be true, and I suspect it is true. In any case it's about time priests started cracking down on disrespect in mass. They could start by forbidding people to check their cell phones during consecration (I saw that happen in the pew in front of me last Sunday morning).
Not far-fetched at all.
January 15, 2011 at 6:20 am
I support that courageous priest fully. God bless him!
January 15, 2011 at 3:22 pm
God bless the priest for doing his duty. We need more priests to stand up like this—so that Holy Communion is not taken so lightly. If the woman wanted a reason for denial of communion–why did she not wait for the priest's explanation?
January 15, 2011 at 4:32 pm
I fully support the priest 🙂
January 15, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Paul, I agree with what you said,
but
the fact remains that the accidental properties of the host cause it to dissolve rapidly on the tongue, and you did not address this point when you said "not far-fetched at all".
Considering this is the specific thing I said was far-fetched, it would have been appropriate to address it before denying it.
January 15, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Something doesn't sound right here unless, of course, the mother and daughter had left Mass right after communion as they did the following week. However, from personal experience, I do agree that we need to address the issue of reverence for the Blessed Sacrament as there have been occasions when consecrated hosts have been found in the pew (wrapped in a tissue!), on the floor, or elsewhere.
In the case stated, however, I'm not sure that it was proper to deny the mother and daughter Holy Communion. First, there's no evidence that the mother had desecrated the Eucharist or that she was aware of what her daughter had allegedly done. If they were known to the priest, and I would have to believe they were since he knew to whom to deny the sacrament, he should have contacted them before Mass to clarify the situation.
I think the priest was guilty of rash judgement in this case.
January 15, 2011 at 5:51 pm
I think there's a whole lot more to the story (and a bit of presumption on both sides). Did the priest act on heresay alone? If so, then there's a possibility of mis-identifying the person and what was spit out. Did he actually see (and verify that it wasn't gum) the Host in the parking lot? Did he see the girl spit it out himself? Even if he did, there's a possibility that they went to confession after that Mass. The Host does disolve pretty quickly, which would be from the time it takes to receive it, to the time you sit back in the pew, unless the daughter put it in her pocket and the mother told her to consume it when they were outside.
Like the above anonymous poster, I think both sides rushed to judgement.
January 15, 2011 at 6:39 pm
PLEASE………. have that priest transferred to Nancy Pelosi's parish in the Bay Area!
January 15, 2011 at 7:07 pm
I won't disagree that there may be more to the story, but my immediate impression is to side with the priest. I think it's giving the mother too much credit to believe that she didn't have her daughter pocket the Eucharist, and then her daughter, not knowing any better, tossed it away after Mass because it tastes "Yucky" and she didn't want it.
After all, look at her quote: "He's not God!" That's not the statement made of a faithful Catholic suffering a misunderstanding. That's much more likely a woman who is scandalously misinformed about her faith.